Emily in Progress

Been working on this painting of Emily for the past two days. Almost done!

In Progress...

Almost finished. At this point, I want to let it dry for a while before I add the final touches.

Messy Pallet!

What a bummer - it's so pretty!

On a side note, I'm thoroughly disappointed at these new "Van Gogh" brand oil paints I bought to try. They were a lot cheaper than my customary Wisor Newtons, and like a fool, I fell for them. They simply do not have the heft and pigment level to complete with my thicker Newtons, and get completely lost when I use them together. Its a shame, since I do love that orange.

I have to say that the prussian blue is actually ok, but maybe only because those blues are usually dominating anyway.






Check back in a bit to see the painting totally finished!

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!