Graduation Gift

[Linda Brandon]

Oil on ABS panel, 24" x 30"

[Richard Huante]

Wow, Linda, this is beautiful. Great pose. You also successfully rendered a potentially distracting background (with no tangent lines!). Glad you posted the close-up, too; the sparkle in her eyes is captured wonderfully.

Sincerely,

[Garth Herrick]

Linda, what a bold composition! What I am learning from you by looking at this is how a bold stripe pattern can be effectively kept in the background through the use of broken color. Well done! I am curious about your use of an ABS panel. How thick is it and how do you laminate it to a substrate support (plywood)? I have never tried working on ABS yet. Can you share more about what you like in working on ABS panels?

Garth

[Mary Sparrow]

Oh Linda, she is beautiful! Your title has me curious. Did you do this as a gift? May I get on your Christmas list?

[Chris Saper]

Oh, Linda, this is gorgeous - she is gorgeous. I am headed over to see this in person. What a stunning composition, color harmony, and what a painting.

[Jane Bradley]

Linda
This is masterful! One that deserves to be studied . Could you also post a closeup of the hands?

[Linda Brandon]

Thank you all for your kind and encouraging comments.

Garth, there's a long discussion about ABS panels at this post, and if you search there are many more (both the pros and cons of ABS) on the Forum: http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...&highlight=ABS . If you want to give it a try and if I get outside to sand some more of these and if you take me out for coffee when I get to Philly in a few weeks... I'll bring you one.

I was surprised to see that I have posted at least four examples of my ABS paintings on the Forum over the past year or so. Actually, I do paint on other types of panels. Since I have a lifetime supply of ABS I tend to noodle around on it a lot.

Bill Whitaker has just posted a beautiful example of what can be done with ABS and how to sand it over on this link:
http://forum.portraitartist.com/showthread.php?t=4669

I think ABS is especially wonderful in small paintings where you can really obsess over the surface quality of the painting.

My painting was selectively sanded: sanded in the flesh sections and the background was purposely kept textured.
By the way, I'm using much less Maroger than I used to on these ABS panels. I was getting too much glare in the end product.

[Tom Edgerton]

Linda--

Told ya!

Best--TE

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Linda,

This is a beautiful painting, your colors are magnificent!

Joan

[Michele Rushworth]

Spectacular, Linda! Your best yet. I particularly like the warm shadows and the unusual effect of the stripes in the background. Lots of those verticals we talked about!