Tuesday, November 24, 2009

in progress

Working on a portrait of a young woman and her violin. I think the violin is a beautiful instrument and hope mine will turn out alright-- adding to the overall appearance of the portrait rather than detracting from it. I often have difficulty with the lines and angles of an instrument being held.

My first focus is on the face: her expression is focused as she positions her instrument.
Everything else is secondary, but still very important. After all, I want the face to fit the rest of the painting, and not look like the only thing I cared about. I've just begun the hand and hope to define that more next time I work on this painting.

















Portrait in progress, in white and burnt umber. Oil on linen.



Monday, November 9, 2009

Monday Watercolour

Worked on watercolour painting today. I started a landscape. It's a bit larger than I usually do so it will take me awhile to get it to look closer to what I have in mind.
Beginning of watercolour landscape on 140lb watercolour paper

While waiting for my paper to dry out a bit between washes I worked on people. I love doing faces, but unfortunately when I don't have someone modeling for me, or at least photos to go from, my people often turn out looking like distant, albeit fictional, relatives. :-p I decided to work on hair, trying to show better color and texture. However, it didn't work out too well. I gave up trying to make it look realistic, and just had fun.
3.5 x 2.5" Watercolour on 140lb watercolour paper