This is a portrait done in HB pencil. Photo by Eli DeFaria on Unsplash.
Author: cathmary1030
Sketch Awesome.. Portrait from a Loomis Head
I have a bad habit of signing up for online classes (Jed Dorsey’s Mini Challenge, Ali Kay’s VIP Fresh Paint class, Sktchy’s 30 Faces in 30 Days, Kara Bullock’s Let’s Face It 2024 (and 2023) and now 2025) and then letting the classes languish. The only good thing is that they’re all “lifetime” (or at least until they go out of biz!)
Anyhow, I suddenly got fired up to draw more portraits, so I went back to Phil Davies’ Sketch Awesome class and looked up week 4 which was about drawing portraits based on the Loomis Method.
Below is the result of doing the head in profile via the Loomis method. I don’t have a credit on the author of the reference photo, which comes with the class.
Artists I Like
Artists whose work I’ve Purchased
Jed Dorsey – https://www.jeddorseyart.com/
Jim Musil – https://jimmusil.com/originals
Chris Long — https://www.chrislongpainter.com/
Artists whose work I Like (Contemporary)
Hashim Akib — https://www.hashimakib.co.uk/
Phil Davies — https://www.instagram.com/phildaviesartist/
Teddi Parker — https://www.instagram.com/teddiparkerart/
Vicki McGrath — https://www.instagram.com/vickimcgrathart
Favorite Artists
Winslow Homer — in particular his watercolors
https://www.wikiart.org/en/winslow-homer/west-india-divers
https://www.wikiart.org/en/winslow-homer/diamond-shoal
https://www.wikiart.org/en/winslow-homer/hurricane-bahamas-1898
Berthe Morisot
https://www.wikiart.org/en/berthe-morisot/young-woman-at-the-mirror
https://www.wikiart.org/en/berthe-morisot/hide-and-seek
Vincent Van Gogh
https://www.wikiart.org/en/vincent-van-gogh/irises-1889
https://www.wikiart.org/en/vincent-van-gogh/the-starry-night-1889
Doug Clarke
https://www.liquidmethod.com/ — I especially like his figures
Mary Whyte — https://www.marywhyte.com/
Joaquin Sorolla
https://www.wikiart.org/en/joaqu-n-sorolla/my-wife-and-daughters-in-the-garden-1910
52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #32
This is the week 32 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s called “Venice Boats” and is based on a reference photo by y-heng. 6×6 canvas panel, toned in a medium gray.
Dorsey used a sky blue acrylic paint marker and a black one at first to do the outlines. I used a small brush with acrylic paint since my markers dry out so fast.
It felt good to paint again.
52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #26
This is the week 26 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s called “Blue Sky Poppies” and is based on a reference photo by Sergey Schmidt. 6×6 canvas panel, untoned.
I’m not overly happy with this one. I struggled with the flower shapes and the soft focus of the reference photo. The result is that it’s more abstract than I had originally intended. However, I AM (mostly) happy with the colors.

52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #25
This is the week 25 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s called “Mountain Flowers” and is based on a reference photo by Emmanuel Lamboley. 6×6 canvas panel, untoned.
This was fun to do!

52 Mini Paintings Challenge: Week #27
This is the week 27 painting for Jed Dorsey’s Mini Painting Challenge at Acrylic University. It’s called “Desert Sky” and is based on a reference photo by Joe Cook. 6×6 canvas panel, untoned.
I’ll be working on some of the previous weeks’ mini paintings in the next few days, skipping ones I’m not fired up about.

Getting Back in The Groove
It’s been 7 weeks since I’ve picked up a paintbrush… just busy doing other things, (like reading for a book club, Ancestry DNA analysis of my mom’s matches, and some day trips w/ hubby). I had this red-toned 8×8 canvas lying around so decided to do a grayscale version of a coffee cup (image from Unsplash).

Calla Lilies… a “Fresh Paint” lesson
I actually painted this back in mid-May: it’s on offer from Ali Kay‘s “Fresh Paint” membership, and I never got around to posting. I went with my own version of the background as I’m getting tired of copying teacher’s work, lol.








