With more planning, could I paint a good portrait? Let’s see.
Planned it out with drawings and put in all the highlights, etc.
The first color washes are the easiest.
I’m using (mostly) the three colors Mary Whyte (and other portrait artists) use = Quinacridone Rose
French Ultramarine Blue
Raw Sienna
A touch of other colors in the eyes and hair and necklace.
Have been reading a few books written by portrait/figure artists and looking at the colors they choose. Mary Whyte, an amazing portrait artist, chooses these colors with a few darker pigments to get really dark skin. Her portraits and figure work is wonderful, with a very finished look to the end. I like that - and the portraits that are looser and less finished looking (like Charles Reid, etc.).
I’m not a portrait or figure artist, but I seem to have A LOT of books about the subject from a variety of artists. Guess I just like to look at art that is well-done, whether I can do it or not!
Birds need a house, right? Still playing with the granulating colors Daniel Smith makes.
Little wren
upon a limb.
A mourning dove on a
cold and blustery day.
Do you ever wonder how the colors get named? Who names them? Is there a special department just for coming up with interesting names for new colors?
Why Lunar Red Rock and not just Red Rock?
Why Lunar Earth and not just Earth Brown?
And why Goethite?? Hmmmm...
Wouldn’t it be a great job to be the one (or one in a group) to come up with new color names for Daniel Smith or Winsor Newton or Holbein or...?
I hope you have a very nice Valentine’s weekend.
Just a few pinks for Valentine’s Day week.
Yep, finally got bored with just putting down colors and thinking about them - so maybe time to add a bit more interest.
To learn another artist’s view of green (although Viridian green is one I got rid of a long time ago because it’s gritty on the palette and brush and I didn’t like the feel of it), go over to what Laure Fileta says on her blog, paintedthoughtsblog.
