Dear Bill,

This is such a lovely thread, and wonderful to see your steps. I can hardly wait to see you this spring.

WOW.

I'm with Sharon: what more could one ask? Just great stuff, Bill (geez, may I call you that?). I hate to seem like a sycophant, but you are iconic in my book of contemporary figure painters. With your permission, I hope to commit to memory the techniques here and pass them on to my students; this info is priceless.

I must tell you, one of assignments in the beginning drawing class I taught last semester was to copy a master. There was a lot of Bouguereau and Leonardo and Lord Leighton. But one student came in with a printout of "The Secret." I was very happy to point this out and say, "Here's a guy who's not dead!" His drawing came out very good indeed - a breakthrough, actually.

A light touch, eh? I'm like King Kong when it comes to alla prima. Better lay off the bananas and practice more!

Kimberly - AWESOME link. I've been looking for the very thing. :D

Dear Bill,

What a treat! Thank you so much for posting this!
I hope to take your workshop someday too ...


Maria

Mr. Whitaker--

Thanks so much for this demo...your work continues to be an inspiration.

Best--TE

Beautiful!
 

Simply beautiful.

You know I love your work.

This will inspire many.
 

Everyone has expresses it better already, but I want to echo that this demo is an invaluable asset to the Forum community, and will inform and inspire better paintings from many.

I love the punchy background and the way it chromatically supports the figure. Hopefully one day I can take a pilgrimage and see your works in person.

Garth

Another wonder treat for my eyes, thank you so much for posting this. I always learn so much from your threads. I'm going to look for the marble dust etc. and see if I can gesso one myself. Is there a standard "recipe" for this concoction?

Jean

Bold
 

Bill, I'm always surprised to see how boldly your start as compared to how finished (fine) the final results are. I saw an old issue of Art Talk today with one of your works on the cover.

Lovely!
 

Bill

Beautifully done, as usual...

Keep posting!

Tony

Bill, can you humor me and prehaps others and post an extreme super-duper close up of your brush work? I am with Tim, you brush work is loose and painterly but your images, as the face here are so smooth and finished looking!

It must be magic!

Another gem!