ArtistsNetwork.com 61Donna Zagotta
For me, the key to expressing the spirit and essence of a figure isn’t about anatomically correct
naturalism and carefully rendered facial features; it’s about capturing a gesture, the posture
and body language, and then infusing a painting with that figure’s energy and emotion
through the creative use of design and composition.
Peggi Habets
When painting a human subject, I always
try to keep in mind why it is that I’m drawn
to this person in the first place and what it
is that I want to communicate about them.
Remembering my initial inspiration helps me
to define what’s most unique or exciting
about my subject. Is it the expression on her
face? The glint in his eye? The gesture of the
body? The subject’s interaction with another
person or something else? Keeping these
ideas in mind guides many of my decisions
throughout the painting.“
I’ll paint most of the detail on
the eyes, because they’re the
windows to the soul.
”
— Z.L. FENG
Stan Miller
Mark Twain said, “First learn the truth, then dilute
it at your leisure.” In painting the human subject,
I encourage my students to first learn to draw—
to paint the subject as it appears. Once they can
accomplish the craft, I then encourage them to
interpret. In my own work, I like to seek the soul of
my subject by painting the eyes, nose and mouth
accurately—with minimal distortions. As I move
away from the features into the hair and
background, I move toward more abstraction,
attempting to communicate the mood through
shape, color and energized strokes of paint. In the
end, I’m trying to communicate and express what
I’m feeling and seeing, as the model’s soul.