Horizontal Woman

The next exercise was more focused on the backgrounds, almost, than on the face. The format is horizontal; the head is cut off at the top, and the face is the only painted part, in the sense that both the hair and the shoulders/neck are made up of whatever was there after we created our backgrounds.

Emma did this one so fast I couldn't believe it; and I likewise tried to keep up by being more "painterly" and less focused on individual brushstrokes than on general effects.

I don't feel like I succeeded too well. Emma always says, if you mess it up, don't worry, you can go back and paint over it; but there is something essential lost from these portraits if you cover too much too early—you simply can't get it back. So the light side of the face is a bit saccharine in its pinkness, while the dark side got overworked as I kept adding colors, trying for more depth and contrast.

It's still kind of a cool portrait, but only if I don't hold it up next to the master's. Time to remind myself that she's been painting this way for several years, and move on to the next try.

"Horizontal Lady"—gesso, charcoal, acrylics, Stabilo "All" pencil on 140-lb. Fluid coldpress watercolor paper, about 11x18 inches.