Monday, November 15, 2010

2nd Session painting my granddaughter, Ava Dawn...

As you will see, the eye on the left will appear different from the first post of this work, as I began working on the second eye (the left eye)...I realized I had the positioning of the original eye too far left, making the face too wide.

Painting itself, is a means of broadening the scope of one's seeing and arriving at some clarity.  A journey of exploring and discovery as well as whatever expertise we represent, I suppose.

To begin this session, I mixed up more midvalue flesh color/tone, painted over the near dry tacky face preferring to paint wet into wet...which gives me much control I think.  Here is my palette-









Now while I have advanced this much farther, I have to bring the left side of the head over more, the forehead, work more accuracy in shape to the eyes yet...but, am satisfied that I am achieving the level of realism I want that will command attention of the viewer's eye...while allowing me to be as free and unfinished with the peripheral areas of the painting.  Suggestive...and even near abstract...





















And...here is a closeup of the face, using a judicious more cautious building up of rendering form, but the final work will entertain some paint strokes having some sense of spontaneity to them.  The impression should be that the work was effortless to produce...























all images clicked on will bring up larger view...

1 comment:

Matt H. said...

This is an interesting change of pace - not sure how much experience you have in portraits, but this one is coming along nicely.

I don't think I could paint a portrait of a family member or friend: it's tough to not only reflect what they actually look like, but also what they *think* they look like. If one paints a tree in a fashion somewhat different from reality, the tree doesn't feel offended, but a person might, and that's tricky!

Anyway, nice job on something different. I always look forward to seeing your works.