Blog

Day 17 of 30 paintings in 30 days:  Went to a friends studio to paint from the our lovely model, Becka.  She has such a sweetness about her and beautiful coloring.  I was in a dark corner so it was difficult to see the colors on my palette.  I relied on my experience with a limited palette to help me through.  The colors I used were cadmium red medium, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue and titanium white.    I know the value and the saturation limits of this combination and simply thought, "Here it goes a bit more orange" (cad red and yellow ocher) "Next to it it cools and lightens (add white) "Then it warms and goes slightly purplish ( more red, touch of blue and yellow).  The goal was to do a painting and not a portrait so I spent a lot of time on the entire painting and let the face stay loose.  That was hard, every cell in my brain wanted me to refine the face, but I knew my time was limited and at the end of two and a half hours I called it done.  Becka Waiting 11x14 oil