Spanish Beauty - A Work in Progress

I had started this painting on the second day of the Brian Smith workshop (see post 10 April 2011).

I have continued to do a little work on this painting as the mood takes me (see postings on 13 May 2010 and 31 May 2011).

I have thought about what the model had been wearing and am still undecided about whether or not to put in the long dangling earrings. I will probably wait until the painting is closer to being finished and decide at that point in time.

One of the changes I did decide to do was instead of having her wearing a blue blouse with a paisley pattern on it I preferred to have something a little less busy but with rich colour. This is why I painted her wearing a red shawl. This will provide a lot of contrast against the darkness of her hair which is still only partially blocked in.

I will post this painting at a later date once I have more of it completed.

Spanish Beauty - A Work in Progress

I decided to do a little more work on this painting that I had started in the Brian Smith workshop (see post on 10 April 2011 and for the start of this painting see posting on 13 May 2011).

I blocked in some of the hair around the face using pure Payne's grey.

This is to help with getting the correct value of the face for when the next layer of colour is painted to give more shape and contour to the face.

I added a little of the Payne's grey to the flesh tone mixture for the shadow colour.

Shadows were painted above the eyelid, beneath the eye, jaw, nose, in the nostril, crease of the chin and cheek.

A little alizarin crimson was added to the flesh tone to warm the some areas of the face on the forehead, temple, nose and cheek.

The lips were painted using the by adding more alizarin crimson to the warm flesh colour.

Using Payne's grey the eyebrow, eyelashes and pupil of the eye were lightly blocked in.

I will post this painting again once I have more of it completed.

Thank you for looking at my artwork.

Spanish Beauty - A Work in Progress

This is a painting I started on the second day of the Brian Smith workshop (see posting on 10 April 11).

We did a portrait using the "Dead" palette or the "Traditional Skin" palette. The colours we used were Titanium white buff, cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre, alizarin crimson (or cadmium red) and Payne's grey.

The background of the canvas was coated with a wash of neutral grey. Once the acrylic paint dried we sketched an outline portrait of the model using charcoal or conte.

The excess charcoal was wiped off the canvas with a cloth to prevent the media from contaminating the acrylic paint being put down and greying it.

Using mixtures of Titanium white buff, cadmium yellow light, yellow ochre and alizarin crimson the under painting of the face and neck were painted.

The highlights were painted using more Titanium white buff and the shadows were darkened by adding a touch of Payne's grey to the flesh tone mixture.

The under painting on this portrait has been completed.

I will post this painting at a later date when I have completed the next stage and put the under painting in on the hair.

Brian Smith Workshop - Maria

I have had a very enjoyable weekend at KAGS with the Brian Smith workshop on "Colour for the Portrait Painter".

On Saturday the first exercise in the morning was a value study using just black, white and grey in any media. I chose to do mine in Prisma pencil on a 9" x 12" sheet of pastel paper (the completed sketch called Maria is shown here, and is available matted and shrink wrapped for $50.00).

In the afternoon the second exercise was using a monochromatic palette to complete a painting using tints, tones and shades of burnt sienna. The background of the canvas was washed with pure burnt sienna for a mid-range colour.

Brian Smith demonstrated this technique from start to finish and completed the painting in the class.