I like being a female artist painting women. Women interest me for different reasons. Sometimes I like to paint their vulnerability, at other times I want to portray their strengths and their confidence in their own bodies. Another time I just want to paint them in domestic scenes like this one above, reading quietly. Next one, however, I think will be women enjoying themselves out on the town….margueritas to the ready.
A useful tip for all artists; if you hold your work up to a mirror you will see its imperfections. Likewise turn it upside down and again you will see any mistakes. I think the eye is so trained to look at the image in front of it that the viewer becomes impervious to any errors. Looking in a mirror or turning it upside down and the eye has to start again. That is my view anyway, and what I see straightaway is the nose is looking a bit bulbous, something I just didn’t see before. So, to be worked on by next week.
I put a glaze of burnt sienna over the flesh tones, which I have also put into the girl’s hair and into the carpet. By using the colours I already have on my palette I can unify the whole painting; likewise I have added a little into the grey of the sofa, and have added a little grey into the colour of the carpet. Seems to work good.
The same happens with the cobalt blue of the dress; I have mixed a little into the darker tones of the hair. For some reason I have never been a fan of basic brown, so if I can get away with using a different colour I will make use of that. The cobalt blue in the hair draws the eye to the dress and vice versa.
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