Surfing the Inner N8

Last year several of us got together on Sundays after church to paint.  It never really got going again after the summer until this month. 

I’ll have to ask Carolyn if I can post pictures of her latest paintings in progress.  She is so talented!  I’ve decided to move on from my attempts at painting football players.  Instead I’m trying baseball players.

My first effort is an acrylic painting of former New York Yankee Bobby Murcer.  It’s based on a photograph from a recent edition of Sports Illustrated.  Like the photo, the painting is black and white–the first attempt I’ve made at B&W.  I thought it’d be kind of cool to take pictures of it at different stages of development.

Here’s the original photo:

My basic sketch:

And here’s where the painting stands now.  Obviously the face needs a ton of work still.  At this point it’s a face, but definitely not Bobby Murcer’s!  I think I’m probably going to leave out the uniform pinstripes from the original photo.  Here’s what it currently looks like:

If I’m able to finish this one, it’ll be my first-ever completed painting!  It’s the closest I’ve gotten so far.  After we paint this Sunday I’ll post a picture of whatever progress (or regress!) I make.

By the way, last time I shared one of my paintings on here (my very first attempt, I might add), I got joned on by some of you in the comments.  You’re welcome to slam it, but let’s play fair: if you’re going to bust on my painting, I want to see some of yours!  And if you haven’t painted yet or are looking for people to paint with, everyone is welcome to join us at CrossWay on Sunday afternoons.  We usually start around 2:30 p.m.  Good times!