This fascinating work of modern art, symbolic of the longstanding plight of dyslexic lepers in Kurdistan, is evidence of the artist’s burgeoning vulnerability…

Ah, I’m only fooling, it’s just me trying out oil paints for the first time. Stunning ain’t it? The teacher calls this “the fleshy ball.” It’s basically an opportunity to mix the right colors to paint caucasian skin, and, for newbies like me, an opportunity to get used to using a color palette.

Tomorrow, the models show up. We’ll have three days to draw them in the manner that we drew the busts, then next week it’s on to painting.

Painting is very messy, by the way. (Breaking news.) For this reason, I kind of doubt I’ll make it a hobby, but I think I will try to do digital paintings which involve starting with a limited palette of colors.

One day down. After a couple lectures about the oil painting process, we practiced by drawing a plaster bust. The models will arrive on Wednesday.

The method they’re teaching is very meticulous, essentially the same as the Bargue drawings I was doing a while back, but one thing that surprised me is that we’re doing all our drawing/painting about 8 feet away from the easel! What that means is the canvas is aligned with the subject. We step back and use a piece of string to measure and plot the location of various features. We walk up to the canvas, make a mark, walk back and check to see if the mark is in the right place.

The upshot of this tedious, non-creative process is that you end up with an image that’s a perfect copy of what you’re seeing, and if the canvas is aligned with the subject, the copy is also exactly the same size as the real thing. It’s kind of like a reverse-engineered photo. And if you get this part right, most of the hard work involved in getting a likeness is done.

So, we’ll have 3 days with the model to get this part done, plotting points and delineating highlights and shadows. Then next week, painting begins.

Couldn’t sleep on the plane, so I pulled out my iPad and started painting this classic photo of Ariana. I applied some of the concepts from an oil painting handbook recommended by the teacher of the class that I start tomorrow. I might come back to this after I’ve actually been through the class.

I might be a little excited.