Jim O'Neil's photos with the keyword: portrait

Portrait of William S. Burroughs. Pastel on colored card stock, 12 by 12 inches. The title comes from a recent article about him (5 February 2015) in 'The Telegraph': "William S Burroughs 101: "the queer, gun-toting, junkie, in brief"

Watercolor on 9 by 12 inch 140 pound cold pressed paper,

...just playing around with putting down an image in soft pastels, then wetting it and laying on a watercolor wash, letting it dry and then adding a bit more watercolor shading, etc. Soft pastels and watercolors on Bristol vellum paper, 11 by 14 inches.

Playing around with acrylics on paper. Built around a charcoal sketch I did last year of one on my favorite models, Emily. 10 by 13 inches.

Nevada (A.K.A. Frosty Lime) posted the photo to the right for Julia Kay's Portrait Party. While I am not at Kay's party I still had to start this sketch of Nevada, after all she's one of my 257 favorite young ladies in the whole wide world! If I keep at it this will end up as a watercolor painting. I use watercolor pencils, instead of graphite, as the colors just blend in when I do the painting and I've no pencil lines to erase.

Willow charcoal on 11 by 14 inch Bee's sketch paper

As I said earlier: Nevada (A.K.A. Frosty Lime over there on flickr) posted a photo for Julia Kay's Portrait Party. While I am not at Kay's party I still had to start a sketch of Nevada, after all she's one of my 257 favorite young ladies in the whole wide world! If I keep at it this will end up as a watercolor painting. I use watercolor pencils, instead of graphite, as the colors just blend in when I do the painting and I've no pencil lines to erase. Well, I did keep at it and finished the watercolor. I'll be the first to admit that this portrait doesn't really capture Nevada but hey, I tried!

Willow charcoal on 11 by 14 inch sketch paper.

Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成). He was born 1899 and died in 1972. A writer of world renown, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968. -one of the few Nobel prizes that has not been trivialized and still, in my opinion, has great honor attached to it. He is respected in his own country as well as abroad. His short story, 'The Dancing Girl of Izu' (伊豆の踊子 izu no odoriko)) , 1926, gained him his first critical acclaim. An English translation is available in a book by that title published by Counterpoint Press, ISBN 1887178945. Portrait; colored pencil, Kanji; done in ink. On card stock, 12 by 12 inches.

My friend, Claudia, whom I've never met, is one of the most famous artist's models in all the world (she must be famous if I know about her way up here on top of the world!), over the weekend went, with her niece, Olivia, to the Cloisters in NYC. She took some nice pictures of her niece smelling the flowers. With Claudia's kind permission I've done these sumi-e based on Olivia's encounter with the world around her. Thanks Claudia! Sumi-e on 'rice' paper, mounted, 13 by 15 inches.

Mango Queen, also known as Ginny Wang, is partner/manager of the Mango Cafe, coffee shop in Taiwan and also a very accomplished artist. Her work can be viewed here on flickr at her 'Mango Queen' site. She graciously gave me permission to paint this portrait of her. At this stage it is a work in progress and doesn't really do her justice. If you go to her site you'll see she is a beautiful young lady and has a delightful Mona Lisa smile that I haven't captured (OK Leonardo I'm not! -grin-). I'll let this portrait rest for a week of so and then see what happens. Water color and water color pencil on 140 pound cold stock 9 by 12 inches (23 by 31 centimeters)

As noted earlier I let this sit for over a week to decide if I wanted to make any changes. Subsequently I've increased the intensity of some of the shadows, warmed the colors a bit and blended the hues with a wet brush, -but no major changes. I can't say I'm fully satisfied with this work, Ginny is a beautiful young lady and this image doesn't really do her justice, -but I am not too unhappy with it either. Ginny is an accomplished artist as well as a partner in the Mango Cafe in Yunlin County ,Taiwan. Her work can be viewed here on flickr at her 'Mango Queen' site. She graciously gave me permission to paint this portrait, i hope she doesn't regret that decision! Watercolor (Yarka) and watercolor pencil (Kimberly) on 9 by 12 inch (23 by 31 cm) 120 pound cold pressed paper.

My friend, Claudia, whom I've never met, is one of the most famous artist's models in all the world (she must be famous if I know about her way up here on top of the world!), over the weekend went, with her niece, Olivia, to the Cloisters in NYC. She took some nice pictures of her niece smelling the flowers. With Claudia's kind permission I've done these sumi-e based on Olivia's encounter with the world around her. Thanks Claudia! Sumi-e on handmade 'rice' paper (from the paper factory on Shikoku Island that I photographed and shown here on flickr), 8 1/2 by 12 inches.

just an exercise. colored pencil on 12"X12" colored paper

Just doodling. Saturday I took my Japanese guest to an art gallery where a Czechoslovakian glass blower was making glass sculptures. One piece he was doing was a clown around 3 feet tall. His sculpture wasn't at all like this picture but thinking about his clowns influenced my sketching today. soft pastel and colored pencil on 12" X 12" colored paper.

'53 led me to think of Havana. Havana led me to think of dark, smoke filled, bars. Woodless colored pencil on 6" X 6" black stock

an unsolicited, unapproved, portrait of, I presume to call him my friend -as I've gotten to know him a bit and like him, here on flickr, Stefan Krikl. So! While I believe it is quite fair for an artist to do a portraiture of a subject unawares, I think it is also very necessary to bow to the desire of the subject and toss the work if, after the fact, said subject happens to say: :Jim get that damn thing down!" Hence if Krikl isn't happy with my doing this, I'll quickly pull it off flickr!!! Among the ambiguous shapes on the right are bulls, battles, and boundless borders which his works cross, contain and include. He and Steven H have been doing a number of exciting and interesting portraits hence prompting me to to this one. Soft pastel on 9" X 12" cheap construction paper

OK, on or about 12 November Edwina Mordasky posted here (Now there) on flickr her rendering, 'A Diary of Faces No2 Grigorescu' ( www.flickr.com/photos/ejmordasky/8178951316/in/photostream ) after a portrait by Nicolae Grigorescu. Upon seeing her work I commented: "Excellent, Winna! When I first looked at this I had a very strong urge to do an 'after Winna' 'after Grigorescu' with pastels. ;-)" So! After cogitating contrasting and procrastinating I got around to doing this tonight. Hence P.O.W. (Portrait of a Woman) after Mordasky after Grigorescu. Mine is rather roughly based on his painting 'Head of a Woman' from Wikimedia Commons according to Art Cyclopedia ( www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/grigorescu_nicolae.html ) Soft pastels on cheap construction paper, approximately 9 by 11 inches.