The sphere is perfect as a classroom exercise because there is no way of faking it! If you make one of the transition tones in the light even a little bit too dark it will look like a spot or blemish. Make the value too light in the dark range and the form doesn't turn. The more one works on it and the more real looking it becomes, the more delicate your handling must become or it will stand out compared to the previously painted passages.

Jessica Du painted this during the Sunday drawing and painting class. She is in high school and works very consistently here, even though she has the usual full high school schedule. This is all going into her college portfolio I am completely impressed at her level of focus and the care she puts into her studies. At that age, I had nowhere near her level of maturity or quality of finished work.

I first visited the Cascade mountains in Washington state as a teenager. I grew up in some perpetually gray and dreary Chicago weather and I loved seeing the mountains, lush forests and greener than green, well... GREENS! Everywhere I looked the colors and light just saturated my eyes. As always I kept imagining mythical creatures in the settings around me. So when it came time to place my most recent studio model in an environment that meant something to me, out popped my very large stock of reference photos.
This painting is a combination of a lovely rock from the Cascades, the always terrific local model Jessica Triller, some wings gifted to me from a friend who found a dead bird and of course my constant supply of gold leaf.