Bruce Portrait Entered into Art Competition

Entered this portrait of my friend Bruce into the EYES IN Art competition.
a painting completed a few months ago.

Check out the competition page here:
http://www.eyesin.com/_2011_contest/entry/art-michael-brennan-0s928982yp6696630.html

Yolanda's Art

I have said it before and will say it again many times more.
Yolanda my girlfriend has such a natural ability to create art
I'm always inspired by what she draws or paints.

Here are a few of her pieces.

Nude Drawing

Made it to life drawing today!
Was a 3 hour pose, drawn with conte pencils.
7 x 10 inches.

Ezra portrait study with Zorn palette

Been interested in the works the Swedish painter Anders Zorn (1860 - 1920) was able to pull off using only four colours.  White, Ivory Black, Yellow Ocher and Cadmium Red.  Instead of using blues to cool things down, Ivory Black mixed with Titanium White gives a cool grey, which looks almost blue next to warm colours.  I wanted to experiment with those colours in this study and see if it would be something worth trying for the final painting.  I'll make another study next with a more contemporary palette to compare the two.

Here is my Palette with some progress steps taken while painting.

Ezra study underpainting

Working on a small study before starting my next painting.
Here is an underpainting 8 x 10 inches painted with terra rosa oils.
the final piece will be 2 x 3 feet when completed.

Quick sketches

Some sketches done while out with some friends.
At Ward's island toronto and the library.

Ezra Portrait

Completed Painting of Ezra.

18 x 24 inches oil on belgian linen.

ITN Feature

Many Thanks to Amy Whitney at Inspirational Transformational Network for making me the Featured Artist for September!

Here is the link to the article: http://inspirationaltransformational.com/blog/?p=457

Ezra painting progress 2

Some more progress on the portrait, about eighty percent there.