“Dennis” 4-Hour Portrait Sketch

Palette: water-mixable oils
Titanium white
Cad yellow 
Cad yellow light
Cad orange
Cad red light
Yellow ochre
Burnt sienna
Alizeron crimson
Burnt umber
Raw umber
Ultramarine blue

Brushes
Mostly #8 and up bristle round and flat brushes, a fan brush

Supports
9x12 Deserres Canvas Board

Mediums
Water
Winsor and Newton Water Mixable Oil Painting Medium

I prefer painting women. Apparently many artists do. When there’s a choice at figure painting, the masses flock to the female model. It’s arguable a woman’s body is more aesthetically pleasing than a man’s (sorry, guys). But I also find I can do smoother blending when painting a female, which lets me use my dangerously addictive fan brush. And too much blending = muted colours, boring brushwork, poor shaping!

So, it’s fun to paint a man and play with the sharp angles of the face. Delineation between dark and light shapes is easy to capture.

With a bit of tweaking to the shadow shapes and some red and orange strokes added into the light, you can get a good likeness fast.

A prop, such as a pair of specs, adds personality. And Dennis needed his - he was flipping through a James Bond paperback during the sitting (better than staring at the floor for three hours, I imagine). :)

A smattering of cool blues helps with the final sculpting of form and the color play. I’ve selectively sharpened edges around the nose (closer to the viewer), and blurred others, such as the edge of the forehead. Voila, a finished sketch and I barely touched my beloved fan brush!

Normally, I include summary critiques at the ends of my posts (“What worked…” and “Er, better luck next time…”). Are these helpful? Should I keep doing them?

Thanks,

~ Lynn Davies

Back At The Canvas

Long time no see! I had a lovely wedding and a great honeymoon in France. Now, time to get back into the swing of things - including being a Studio Diva! To kick off my return to the art realm, I’ve posted the finished portrait of my Dad’s wife, Prang. I presented it to the two of them when they were in Canada for my wedding, and they were both very pleased. It’s now framed and hanging on a wall in Thailand. As always, in retrospect I can see things I’d fix, but overall I’m happy with the results. I’ve decided the painting was made as a gift, so I’d like to keep it simply that, rather than a piece to critique. I hope my Dad and Prang enjoy it for years to come!

~ Lynn Davies

Wedding Hiatus

Studio Diva will be back! But first she’s gotta get married and go to France.

Stay tuned…

Prang Update

Quick update on Prang!

As you can see, I’ve only been working on her face, painting all the features. I’m still using purple hues in the flesh tone where the planes recede into shadow, and I think it’s working out well. A lot of detail and refining of the edges are still outstanding. I’m really fussy about this in my formal portraits (perhaps too much so). Next steps will include continuing with the face and working down into the neck and shoulders so it looks like the head and the body actually fit together!

~ Lynn Davies

Prang - The Painting Begins

Palette: water-mixable oils
Titanium white
Cad yellow 
Cad yellow light
Cad orange
Cad red light
Yellow ochre
Burnt sienna
Alizeron crimson
Cobalt blue
Light green
Purple

Brushes
Mostly #8 and up synthetic round and flat brushes, a fan brush

Supports
16x20 Primed Board

Mediums
Water
Winsor and Newton Water Mixable Oil Painting Medium

As I said last time, I’m very indecisive about choosing a color palette for my paintings. After completing the first study - with purplish accents on some areas of Prang’s face, which I really liked - I did another study (above) where I used purple throughout: a mix of alizeron crimson, cobalt blue and white. I also included a pigment simply called “purple” (by Duo). To darken shadow areas, I added burnt sienna. The base skin tone is white, yellow ochre, cadmium yellow and cadmium red light.

I left the background color white with a thin yellow wash and thought it worked well. I was going to go with blue in the background, but I figure if I leave the background white with the exception of a light wash, the wedding dress can fade nicely into it.

I started the painting proper on 16x20 board with my (for now) decided-upon palette. In retrospect, I wish I had painted white onto the background and let it dry before applying the wash and the figure; the board is slippery and the paint wasn’t adhering well. A base coat will often take care of that.

Unlike my portrait sketches - mostly done in one session with the paint wet on the canvas the whole time - my formal paintings are a succession of layers that dry between applications. It takes a couple days for the first layer to dry. I can proceed from there and start adding details and darks, which in this case I didn’t - because I wanted the basic layout down (darks can be hard to correct).

Onward! This is where the fun starts.

~ Lynn Davies