How I got to the Yoga Painting and other mysteries

If you have followed my previous posts you will see that a friend of mine named J posed for me.

J has posed for three works. He first posed in the Burning Man painting called "Portrait of the Tribes".

J is featured along the bottom of the painting seemingly to stare at the model dressed in the garter.

The following year J posed for this artwork:

You can view the original blog here:
https://steemit.com/art/@morangallery/figure-painting-start-to-finish

This year: 2019, J posed for this work called "Après Le Bain"

Here is the work as it stands now:

Here are the sketches that began in the morning.

J was drawing me in these sketches.

After the bath, the pose is found:

I found this drawing so fun and worthy of a painting in itself.

J posed quickly for the actual painting. Here are the progress shots:

This brings us back to the state of this painting is now.

So the question remains... How did I get to the Yoga Painting?

Well I owed J. He invited me to paint at a festival that he worked very hard at making a success.
This festival in Santa Barbara was called "Stoked".

J's performance throughout the festival was song, spoken word and dance. His voice and song would be coming through the speakers as a troop of dancers would be performing routines. His creativity was a constant presence and I was proud of my friend.

One night, J performed on stage and I drew his performance. When the performance concluded I gifted him the original drawing. This was the least I can do as the original painting "J" paid for my recent trip to Taiwain.

Here is this drawing from a late night stage performance:

To get to the yoga painting I first began with sketching yoga classes. I would show the sketches to the models and ask if they would pose for the painting.

One model who agreed was an aerialist named Lilly.

One cool moment was sketching the breakdancing class.

So here we are, the path to the creation of this painting is now revealed:

The Yoga painting:
.

If you take a moment to reflect on the journey you may realize why the focus of this painting was feminine.

Please visit
http://www.morangallery.com lists "après le bain" for sale.