Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Jennifer

Jennifer
another day in portrait group. I never did post last week's effort.  We had a great model, who is a Revolutionary War re-enactor, and came dressed in 1680's garb (yes, I know that's before the Revolution! He does several time periods, including Civil War era).  I hated my portrait. I scraped it out with all intention of trying to re-work it from photos, but just never did  touch it again.
 Today's model was the granddaughter of one of our members, a nursing student and a sweet gal.  I think she was really getting tired and was having trouble holding the pose, but nobody complained, and we all enjoyed the practice.  This is such a great group of folks and the cost is so reasonable, that it is well worth the hour drive it takes to get there.
There is simply no substitute for practice, especially for portraits.  I'm learning  and still have so far to go, but every week there is a new discovery. Today, I tried a different color, and like it.  I added Terra Rosa to my shadow mixes and felt like it created some nice shades.  But I can see that there are so many opportunities for beautiful subtle color variations that I simply don't have the smarts to do yet...
Jennifer seemed to really like this portrait, and she was such a good sport, I gave it to her.  she was tickled, and I was happy she liked it.

3 comments:

billspaintingmn said...

I like it!
I like the clean color that allows the luminisity, or glow of her face to shine.
That is an important part of what I enjoy seeing in a portrait.
I can also see character in her face. I don't know what she looks like, but I'm sure there's a likeness!
Likeness's are a challenge, a good
sparring with the brush, and it can become rewarding after a while!
Paint on Deb! Cheers!

Diana Moses Botkin said...

Lovely job on this, Deb. You have every right to be pleased with it.

I know what you mean about sometimes just not getting back to a piece to finish it, even with the best intentions.

Keep up the good work!

Unknown said...

thanks, Bill and Diana...
always such a treat when fellow artists check in.