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.

Burningman2017Portraitofthetribess copy4mm.jpg

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.

bain sketch4.jpg

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.

20190809_142926 (1).jpg

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.