Sarah, 10x8" oil
Venice Portrait Studio. Was traveling light last Friday and only brought ultramarine blue, cad yellow light, perylene red, and titanium white to paint with. The model had a lot of black hair and I had no black paint. Sure, someone would have loaned me enough, but I wanted to see how far I could get by just mixing the three colors. I'm pleased with the result. Sometimes, a limited palette makes the work look more harmonious. Sarah is a beautiful young woman but not easy to paint because she's so perfect. Told her she needs to work on some worry lines to give us something to measure from.
I'm glowing from the response that my last post is receiving on Facebook, Gulfscape #1. Today, hoping to repeat the performance, I attempted to paint another wave... it's in the maybe-I-should-wipe-it-off-and-start-over stage. Gulfscape #2 might or might not be posted tomorrow. Wish there was a technique to make it easy... but then, it would just look like another formula painting.
There are lots of books on how to do it. My favorite is E. John Robinson's classic, "Paint the Sea in Oils Using Special Effects." Good practical advice and great for learning wave structure. But I'm reaching for something more with these wave paintings. And if it were easy, how boring would that be?
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