I practiced this painting method on a digital platform using pastel brushes. I feel like I unable to control the half tone and dark half tone. in most cases, the blending between the light and shadow families is flat. But I enjoyed completing this painting.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get a better picture of my painting, a lot of the color changes in the lights got lost. I did tickle the painting to death a little bit in certain areas (especially the cheeks) and there are some issues but I started getting to a point where trying to fix things messed it up more than it would help so I called it. Any feedback is appreciated. Great course so far. Now that i am familiar with the method, I could probably get a much better result once I come back and redo this painting.

Thanks so much for the wonderful course Morgan. ‘Inside-out drawing’, and limiting values has really helped me already! Sadly I only have Gouache paints (cad red and yellow ochre) and no art suppliers nearby. Will buy some oils ASAP, but I would love to hear your suggestions to improve in the meantime. I heard you’re very skilled in gouache, so any gouache pointers are also super welcome, it’s a tricky medium. Thanks again for this great course!

Thank you for providing such inspiring references! I struggled to paint this but it was also a joy! I decided I needed to put it in time out and maybe revisit it after my skills improve. That shirt gave me fits! I'm finding out that I am a very messy painter and I get totally overwhelmed with brushes and rags all over the place. I have a hard time cleaning the brushes in between colors. I keep having to remind myself that I am not painting a wall and to stop overworking my brush strokes. Even though I am already quite slow, I think I need to slow down more and stop when I start getting tired, because then I make a mess. Anyway I appreciate you sharing your knowledge with us. I am quite happy with my second oil portrait, I love the old world/antique feeling of it!

Hi Morgan, What paper surface are you using for your pastel demonstration in your portrait painting course? It looks like newsprint in the video but I'm curious as you are still able to build up in layers. Thanks! Chris

Here’s how the painting turned out. I used only the four colors and six values.

Thanks for this recommendation. It’s game changer!

way off in places! I think I need lots more practice…

It may be due to the camera angle but, when I use your suggestion of rapidly comparing your drawing to its reference, I see the drawing as being slightly stretched vertically compared to its reference. Are you seeing that too on the video? When I was a student, this type of distortion was a common issue for those of us who didn't begin a drawing with an envelope that established the overall proportions of the image. What are your thoughts about using measured envelopes as a beginning, as Raphael Ellender teaches in his book, Basic Drawing? BTW, Andrew Loomis offers a "visual survey" on page 88 of, Figure Drawing For All It's Worth, that's kind of similar to your "inside to outside" method of measuring.

Morgan - Thank you for the course. It's hands down the best painting course I've ever watched. And thank you for your recommendation of the Blick linen panels with extra gesso - great surface to paint on for not much money. I have a few more general questions that I would love to get your opinion on so I'm going to just ask them all at once. 1.) Do you still paint your larger pieces on Claessens 166? If not, what are you using now? Also do you add extra gesso to your stretched linen pieces? 2.) Could you explain exactly what you prefer to use (products, sheen, etc.) and what your normal standard operating procedure is for varnishing your paintings? 3.) Any tips for photographing your completed artwork? Your paintings are incredible but the photographs of your paintings are excellent too so any help there would be much appreciated for people like me who can't seem to photograph their artwork well.