Emily

Today I'm working on a small oil painting. I did the under-drawing a few months ago and it got put on the back burner. I'm happy to get back to it! The image is of a friend (herself an incredible illustrator and designer) who graciously agreed to let me paint her portrait.

Since many of the colors in my reference photo are in the cooler spectrum, I gave the drawing a wash of a warmer color - acrylic yellow ochre paint. As a result, my cool colors on the warm base will be much stronger than if I started on white. I used acrylic, which is a plastic based paint, because it dries very fast and oil works well on top of it. You can always paint with oil over acrylic, but not the other way around!

I will probably begin on her face, mostly because I think that's the most interesting part. I'll keep you posted on progress, so be sure to check back!