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Mike Neilson – Bold, Sensitive and Versitile I’m very pleased that my good friend, Mike Neilson, agreed to paint an oil demonstration for this month’s newsletter. I first met Mike in 1989 at a Richard Schmid workshop in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Mike was amazingly talented then, and has only improved over the years. He is a masterful painter of both landscapes and portraits. Mike is a graduate of the American Academy of Art in Chicago, and studied under the tutelage of Richard Schmid, at the Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Art, also in Chicago. He has been a regular exhibitor in the Oil Painters of America annual exhibits, and has won numerous regional awards, including the following: Best of Show – Cedarburg Plein Air in 2007 Mike regularly conducts workshops in the Midwest, and is sought after for both his knowledge and expertise. Those interested in scheduling a workshop with Mike can email him at neilsonfineart@gmail.com. His new website is currently under construction, and will be up and running soon.
(click on any image to view it larger)
A Portrait of Flame This is a head study I painted recently at a group session I organize which meets every Monday The things I want to remember as I try to capture his likeness - Look for things that are easy to see accurately. Colors, shapes, edges, darks, lights.
1. My canvas has been toned ahead of time. I start out with a flesh tone mixture in a midtone range which has been thinned down a bit. Colors are yellow ochre, permanent red medium and titanium white. 
2. Using thin mixtures of ultramarine blue and transparent oxide brown and perhaps a bit of permanent alizarin I sketch in the overall shape of the head, then I draw the shapes of the features looking for the darks of the eye sockets and the eyes, the shadow under the nose, the upper lip and the shadow under the lower lip. These are darks that are usually easy to see when the model is lit from above. I am careful to squint to simplify these shapes and to help me see how dark they are. 
3. I start laying in colors.
4. I squint and notice where the lightest light is and continue to refine the shapes.
5. I notice that I need to increase the distance from his eye lash to his eyebrow. In hindsight, not sure why I left such hard edges under the eyebrow. It would have been easier to soften them at this point rather than waiting. Perhaps I needed a reminder to squint. I continue to correct and refine shapes.
6. Further refining including the hair and the beard. At this point our three hours are up and it's time to go home. This is the stage I reached while painting from the model.
7. Luckily I took some photos of the model and a few days later I was able to spend some time, for better or worse, carrying it to the next stage. Much of the work involved softening edges and correcting drawing errors, including his collar which was way off. This last shot was photographed outside so the color is cooler in temperature.
 "Flame" 14x11 oil
The colors I used:
Painting portraits from life is a great thrill and I highly recommend joining a group or starting one if you're interested in getting great practice and improving your skills at painting people. -- Mike Neilson
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My heartfelt thanks to Mike for this painting demonstration. I hope that it has been both Happy Painting!
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