Amalgamation

Well, still no charcoal or pastels or pencils for the week's assignment, but I decided to do another, just for fun, and substitute some other techniques.

I did the same thing with the white gesso and stencils, to better effect this time, I think, because of the way the patterns invade the figure. I went around the image with a smudgy outline of India ink (instead of charcoal) before I painted the rest of it, just to give it some sort of particularity—a reverse glow? That wasn't so effective, because I don't have the skill at it yet, but practice makes perfect. As for the rest, I did the runny ink background as in the new assignment but retreated to some of the techniques I learned from Deb Weiers (notably the outline in pen) for the rest of it.

I'm actually fairly pleased with it, although I wish I had gone with a different lace pattern than the kind of lame flower thing I ended up choosing, so it would have looked a little more classy and a little less schoolgirlish.

The model is actually author Joyce Carol Oates, although I made her look a few decades younger in this. I wasn't really going for a portrait—but she has those deep eyelids that always give a face some distinction, plus I liked her hat, so I used her as a reference.

Stencils, white gesso, Daler Rowney inks, pencil, India ink, Uniball Vision pen, white gel pen, on 140-lb. coldpress Fluid watercolor paper, 8x12.