I have developed a unique technique I call “strip painting” which allows me to quickly capture the likeness of my subject, whether it be a portrait, background or a landscape.  Rather than work on the entire painting at once, I work on one small strip at a time.

I prefer to cut and stretch my own canvass.  Exceptions are made for a variety of reasons, such as when I am doing a demonstration and have to transport the work in progress back and forth to my studio.

My paintings normally begin with the canvass being mounted to a flat, hard surface. 

Once I have the canvass attached to a hard surface, I lay out the size of the work with masking tape.  The work is normally done a little over-sized to make it easier to mount the finished canvass to stretcher bars later on.

This painting was going to be 53x83, a rather larger piece.

The next step I follow is to place a photograph of the subject I want to paint over the canvass.  The size of the photo must match the size of the painting I want to create.  
 
In my illustration here, I printed the seascape i wanted to paint into 3 separate photos, each being 24 inches tall and 84 inches long.

Since this painting was going to be a very dark, stormy looking piece, I covered the canvass with black gesso first before applying my photos.  I then taped the bottom and middle "panels" (as I call them) to the canvass.

Here you can see all 3 panels taped to the canvass.

You can also see a smaller photo of my subject taped to the wall on the left.  I use that smaller photo just as a reference when painting large pieces.

The next step in my process is to cut the photo into small strips and tape each strip to the canvass. 

You can see the individual pieces of tape along the bottom of the canvass.  Each piece of tape holds down one small strip of the entire painting.

Since this was going to be a large painting I broke it down into the 3 separate panels and treat each panel as a separate painting.

I then paint one strip at a time, hence the term, "Strip Painting".

I will continue painting each strip individually, blending them together as I go.

Since I am right handed, I normally paint strips from right to left.

Once I have a strip painted, I tape it upwards out of the way.

In this photo you can see how the painting looked after having the bottom and middle panels finished.

Here I am working on the top panel.
 
You can see the unfinished strips still taped down on the upper left side.

The final stage of my work consists of mounting the canvass on stretcher bars and adding the final highlights.  This is where I set the original photo aside and work strictly from my own perspective, making adjustments to the piece as I so choose to.
 
 And finally, the completed painting.

"Stormy Sea" was probably one of the easiest paintings I have ever done, and I created it by using my unique, "Strip Painting" technique.

El Vira was 24x32 so I treated her as 3 panels as well.

I painted the bottom portion first that included her hands.

I then moved up and painted form her hands to her chin and lastly, the top part that contained her head.

I don't like to paint a strip that is much over 16 inches, hence breaking the painting down into different panels if the image is over 16 inches tall.

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Here is the completed first strip of "La Rosa".

You will notice this was painted on a stretched canvass rather than having the canvass mounted to a wall.  I chose this method because I was going to use this in a painting demonstration at Michaels Art Supplies where I was teaching classes and it was easier to transport a stretched canvass back and forth to class.

You can see the finished bottom panel and the second panel laid out in strips.

You will also notice the two wood strips clipped down to the canvass just to hold the photo flat on the canvass.

Here is where I am working on the details of her face.

I have a photo taped to the left side for reference.  I am doing the basic layout of her face at this stage.

And here you can see the small strips I am painting her face from.

Finally, the finished painting.

This was the preliminary painting of Delainie.

I simply was not at all pleased with the way she looked.

To fix the problems with her face, I taped a copy of my original photo over her face.

Since i was only concerned with fixing her face and not her hair or body, I only had to cover her face.

Notice the photo being cut into strips.

The beauty of Strip Painting is that you can easily  identify, isolate and correct specific parts of the painting.

I lifted four different strips and noticed several errors in the painting, mainly her eyes and her mouth.

The next photo below illustrates the problems with this painting.

I have placed arrows showing the types of problems with the painting and why it didn't look right.

If you look closely at the junctions of the original photo and the painting  you can see that the painting does not match the photo. Close yes, but in painting portraits close is not good enough.

After making the corrections on the 4 strips I previously lifted, I then lifted 2 more and worked on the painting beneath them

Once I had the 6 strips corrected I lifted additional ones and worked on the area beneath them.

I continued lifting and painting beneath each strip.

Finally I have the eyes, mouth and flesh tones all fixed for this portrait.

And the completed portrait, much improved.

All of the corrections were done using my Strip Painting technique.

Below is the side by side comparisons of the preliminary and the final painting. 

Use my unique Strip Painting and you too can do  some amazing paintings.