Amanda redux

I liked my portrait of Amanda Gorman that I did for the inauguration, but although it was a good portrait, it wasn't the best likeness. Her eyes have a particular almond shape and slant that I didn't quite capture; and I thought I could do better. Also, although I picked the colors on purpose (red and blue for the big day), they are not Amanda Gorman's true colors, nor are they apparently her preferred colors—too cool! So here is my second attempt.

I also used this opportunity to do approximately the lesson for Week 3 of Let's Face It 2021. We were supposed to do the assignment inside a book; I instead chose to use a page from a book over my watercolor paper. (It's a page from my old, falling-apart copy of The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.) The assignment was also painted in acrylics and clear gesso, but since the only thing I have is inks and watercolors, I used those instead. But I think it fulfills the spirit of the assignment, which was to use print as a background, to add some interesting detail, and to be painterly! I added the "caged bird singing" to acknowledge Amanda's ring from Oprah, a memento of Maya Angelou.

After I was all done, I wished that I had handwritten the text of her poem in the background, but at this point I was afraid to mess up several hours' work, so I'll have to try that another time. I instead added some stencilled leaves in watercolor pencil, which I somewhat regret, but...it's done.

Pencil, Uniball pen, Signo white gel pen, watercolor pencil, stencil, Daler Rowney inks, watercolor, on gesso'd book page and Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.