"ART is a word which summarizes THE QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION. "
L. Ron Hubbard

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Jennifer after the third sitting


As I said in the last post, the portrait had been worked on for 2 sittings. In the third sitting, Jennifer came in with a different blouse, explaining that her floors were being re-done and she hadn't been able to get into the house. I could have chosen to keep the turtleneck, but I liked the compostion better with more of her neck revealed. You'll notice in this third sitting that, while the background is filled in, it has been done rather quickly. As I told Joe, I could have used several more sittings.



The photo is fairly small, so here is a detail of the face. I am impressed with this method of working on a portrait. I particularly like mixing the two basic face colors in advance and then varying them just slightly on the palette. Variations included the use of alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, green, Van Dyke Brown, perhaps other colors in very small amounts to capture the shadow tones and reflections in the face. I have never worked this way, but have always mixed each color as I worked. For a portrait this method promotes more integrity.

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