Blue and Orange Portrait

In Class Portrait Start

Our Figures in the Landscape class was forced inside due not to rain, but due to the heat.   To any tropical latitude readers, I admit we cannot take the heat here in New England!   We painted in the relative comfort of the North River Arts Society building.

I took the opportunity to do a head and shoulders portrait of our gorgeous model, a college student and daughter of one of my classmates.   Her manner was lovely and composed and when she spoke, it was obvious that she was a sweetheart.   So not only was


Portrait in Blue and Orange
  Post Figure Class

my goal to do justice to her flawless complexion, but to achieve an expression that conveyed a lovely person inside.

For the first couple of hours I worked on the accuracy of my drawing.   I worked on a smooth clayboard which is good for wiping out all the lightest lights while building the structure of the face. 

My first attempt at full color paint turned out very poorly and even ruined my underpainted sketch.   In a rage that only I seemed to know about, I vigorously wiped out and began again.   With only an hour to go, I had to buckle down and get the facial features done before time ran out. 



Portrait in Blue and Orange with Studio Fixes

The wiped down canvas still had the ghost of the first rendering, and some classmates and teacher Dianne thought I should call it done.   It did look somewhat misty and loose; I did like it.   However, I was shooting for a very good likeness and I didn't want to waste the opportunity to work on facial accuracy of a live model.

At the end of class I took some reference photos so that I could finish the portrait in the studio.   My goal was to keep everything loose and misty except for the facial features.   The first photo is the painting at the end of class.   The photo below contains corrections made back in the studio.  Prior to the final posting to my website, I may make a very slight modification to the lips and soften the eyes' expression in keeping with the little twinkle that our lovely model has.