|
Hi Terri,
I think my views are a little radical, but since you paint so many outdoor portraits I just have to put my two cents in here.
Outdoor portraiture is not "about" finding volume in the form. There's so much reflected color in the diffuse outdoor light that you're getting a different kind of value change in the shadow side of the face than you would if you painted an indoor portrait. (Also, sunlight blows out most, if not all, the subtle value changes in the light side.) It's about color change and atmosphere and lost edges - in short, those qualities that add to the freshness and excitement of being outside. If you don't do this your painting looks like a "painted photo" and you don't want that - you want your painting to look alive. Take a look at Frank Benson or Edmund Tarbell for the way they've handled color in outdoor portraiture.
Just for the record, I use a different skin color palette for outdoor work than I do for indoor work. I'm not interested in "temperature" issues as much as I am with opacity and intensity.
I do think you are a fine painter and I'm enjoying your change to oils. I really like all the outdoor painting that you do, you have an affinity for it.
|