2 hours study
 

This is a study I did last night. 11x14 canvas panel. Critique is very welcome!

Maria,

It looks as though you have achieved a lot in 2 hours. The proportions look very solid and convincing, and you have identified the areas of shadow, halftones, and light in a way that tells me you know what you are looking for!

The thing that really puzzles me is the earring! It leaves me guessing why you did not build up the light areas of the head any further, yet chose to put a very high value accent on the pearl earring. My instinct tells me that, if the earring catches that much light, I would expect to see much more light on the light side of the face, and some highlights in the hair.

Maybe you ran out of time and couldn't go any further, or maybe your paint was too thick on the light side of the face and you had trouble laying on a lighter value into all that wet paint?

There are a lot of really nice things about this study, so I would like to hear more about your process and some of the issues you dealt with while you were painting.

Alex

Hi Alex,

Thanks!

I have to admit that the earring (diamond ?) was a last second addition and should be toned down.

If I had more time, I would work more on the hair - get defined highlights in (was impossible as the paint was thick and wet) , lighted up somewhat the earlobe , work more on the lips especially on the lower one.

The process - I'm trying to plan and set goals depending how many times a model comes (1-3 sessions). In this case I knew I had only 2 hours, so I dived right in getting the darks (thinly) and the lights (thinker), followed by the middle tones.


Maria

I saw Nelson Shanks do a demo a few years back and he had the same problem, trying to add paint to a portrait that already had lots of slippery layers on it. It was in the middle of a demo so he couldn't just wait a couple of days for it to dry to add more paint.

To solve the problem he used a Damar retouch varnish spray and during a break I asked him about it. He said it was to make the lower layers grab more so that he could continue to add paint. Might be worth a try

Thanks for the good idea, Michele! Will give it a try.