Bernie - Pastel on paper in the classic style

This is about the third time that I have painted Bernie and he is one of my favourite models.  When he is posing he is like a statue which makes it very easy for us.



 This is my first sketch of Bernie.  There were less than a dozen of us in the studio today so there was lots of elbow room.  Bernie has a gleam in his eyes that makes you think that he is up to no good but he is a kind hearted soul and a pleasure to work with.  He sits for half an hour at a time with ten minute breaks in between sittings.  This took me two sittings so about an hour of actual work to complete.

I remembered my camera so here is the view of Bernie that I had from my easel.

I completed two sketches in the three hours in the studio but the second one is never very good because I am very tired mentally after the first one and I find it hard to focus.

 This is the second sketch.  Not terrible but not really great either.

Painting for me, especially portraits requires that I focus very intently on what I am doing and I have the attention span of about a two year old so three hours in the studio is a bit of a stretch.