The finished painting on my easel.
On August 9 2025, I finished my fifth and final painting of the summer. Not quite the calendar summer since I started thinking about and sketching them in the middle of May and then I finished them in early August. It’s more like the academic summer. I have two weeks before my next semester teaching starts so that lines up.
As my the Spring 2025 semester wound down I got it in my head that I wanted to do some painting over the summer. I haven’t gotten to do a lot of painting in quite a few years so I wanted to challenge myself to get some done. I had five blank 24×36 inch canvases that had been sitting around for a while and were ready to go. So I was well set up.
Originally I thought there were only four canvases and that maybe I could complete four paintings. When I discovered that there were five canvases I wasn’t sure about getting a fifth one done. I imagined I could stretch my painting summer into the next semester and finish up in September or even October if I had to. There was no deadline. That plus I had no idea how quickly I could get any of the paintings done.
That I got all five paintings finished by the second week of August is because of a fast start. I got two paintings done in June and that set the pace. It even took longer than I expected to get that first painting finished but at least then I knew what it would take. I had confidence in finishing.
The five paintings took me nine, five, seven, seven, and seven days of full time work. That’s quite a bit. I got them done over five two week periods. Two in June, two in July, and the final painting in the first two weeks of August. That is a fast pace. I’m a little surprised how quickly I was able to get them done.
This last painting, “Final Rank,” is from a drawing that I did back on May 21, 2025. It was among the first batch of drawings that I made and I always had my eye on it to become a painting. It was almost the first painting I made but, in the end, I wanted a more straightforward angle of the face for that first painting. This one would have to wait. And it had to wait for three more paintings besides that first one.
I think what drew me to this image was that the man in the painting was staring off into the distance. Most of my paintings of faces have the faces looking in the viewer’s direction and staring hard the towards the viewer. That’s kind of standard for me. I like that. But with this painting I liked something a little bit different.
I transferred the painting to the canvas by using a grid. That’s my standard way and the way of artists for a long time. It was easy to transfer over except for the lips. That’s because at full size I didn’t like the way the lips were drawn. I didn’t think that the worked well anymore. I decided to redraw the lips entirely. It took a little while to get them to a place where I liked them but that time was worth it. If I had continued on with the lips that I didn’t like I would be trying to fix them over and over. That’s how that works. It’s better to fix things in the preliminary drawing phase than in paint.
The rest of the drawing followed the sketch closely. That’s what the sketch is for after all. It took me half a day to transfer the drawing to canvas and then almost all of the next day paint the purple line. It’s such a dark purple that it looks black but it’s not.
The next step took two days and that was painting in all the solid areas of color. This is the most tedious part and takes a bit of stamina. Though the color is only a single solid color I put in on the canvas in a very particular way. I use thick paint that holds the brush strokes and I use the angle of the brush stroke to build up different textures in the color. It’s one of those things that is more impressive when seeing the painting in person. The texture stands out a lot more than in a photo of the painting.
After putting in all the color I went back and painted the purple line again. This is where I fix the parts of the line that the color obscured and put in some more thick lines where I need them. It also makes a nice change of pace from painting solid color.
After the color is in and the line is all good comes the part that makes the painting come to life. All those little brush strokes and dabs of color. I like this part best because it’s mostly spontaneous and pulls all the other parts of the painting together. This one I started on top with the orange fire hair and blue headpiece before moving on to the eye.
In the three of the other faces I painted this summer I started with the eyes. Maybe because they were looking right at me in those ones but in this one I started with other stuff and then went, “Oh, I’d better do the eyes.” It took me a little by surprise that I didn’t start with them.
After the eyes I work on the rest of the face. There aren’t a ton of marks on the face so it didn’t take a long time. After working on the face and hair the painting started to look good to me. It often surprises me when a painting starts to come to life for me. I expect it to and that’s the plan all along but when it starts to happen I can be like, “Yes, now I see it!” It’s a fun feeling.
It took me parts of the next two and a half days to finish up the painting. I few things of note in it. I like the spiral trees. The “Surprise” lines above the spiral trees and the curved outline are something I usually don’t do. They look Keith Haring-ish to me. The blades of grass are something I usually don’t do. I usually don’t paint texture brush strokes over the purple line. But I like them.
One of the last things I did was put on those four circles of orange paint in the yellow areas. I thought about just dashing them off but then I got out my circle temple and drew them on first. I knew that if I didn’t get them just right then I’d be fixing them over and over. So I took the time to get them correct the first time. Sometimes it’s a battle between spontaneity and planning.
In the end I like the way this one came out. Painting number five. That’s a good number for the summer of 2025.