A Portrait in Progress

I thought it might be interesting to show the process behind painting this portrait from life.  The painting on the left shows the stage where I am thinking about putting down lots of color and finding the planes of the face and features.  In the painting on the right, I've taken my trusty Langenickel soft brush and softened everything I did in the first stage, then added a few details like nostrils and highlights to bring it all together.

Here are the colors that I used in the light areas of her face.  I begin by mixing Cadmium Yellow Light, Cadmium Scarlet, and Titanium White for a basic warm skin tone.  Then I added a drop of green, then Cerulean Blue, then Quinacridone Rose, then more Cadmium Yellow to change the color of the skin ever so slightly.

For the shadows on her face and neck, I started with a mixture of Ultramarine Blue with Quinacridone Rose and Titanium White.  To this mixture, I added Cadmium Scarlet, then a medium value green, then Cerulean Blue, and lastly I mixed Yellow Ochre to my basic purple color.  This gave me a nice range of shadow colors to play with.

When I softened her face, I tried to let the colors stay separated just a bit.  I have a tendency to over blend and lose the color excitement.  When I find a good balance, I put my brush down and walk away quickly!

"Her Favorite Scarf", 9x12"

Last night, we gathered at Mainstreet Studio to paint Brittany.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to forge out into the Polar Vortex to paint into the night?  I am so glad that there are other hardy souls who are determined to paint from life on a regular basis, no matter what Mother Nature throws at us.  Not to mention our intrepid model, who could have been at home watching "Idol" or something!

I decided to try to keep this one pretty loose, and didn't worry too much about getting a perfect likeness.  I was more interested in pushing the color and putting down some really thick paint.

"Sisters", 9x12"

This painting made me think of sisters-- all living on the same branch, but evolving into unique personalities with different outlooks.

My challenge on this one was to use a palette knife on top of a transparent wash.  I had to stop myself before I went in and developed it too far.  I wanted it to say "roses" without overstating things.

Please click on Ann Feldman Sisters for purchase information.  Thank you!

Gesture Portrait, Jeff Watts Workshop

Monochrome Gesture Portrait

On the third day of the Jeff Watts workshop, we created quick gesture portraits of a model who sat all day for us.  I decided to concentrate on my lights/darks and edges (and besides, my knees were knocking from nervousness) so I stuck with the monochrome portrait.  I learned how to pick out abstract shapes in the face to make it more interesting to look at.  I also learned to make edges disappear so that the viewer has to fill in some information.

Gesture Portrait, Jeff Watts

And here is Jeff's fantastic full color portrait, painted in a single sitting.  He starts with transparent washes of color over most of the canvas, then goes in with smaller brushes to pick out the abstract shapes that he sees.  He constantly moves all around the canvas, laying in new color, then going back to paint shapes next to every brush stroke.  A very difficult technique to attempt, but I learned so much just watching him paint!