Lesson 5 with Emma

For Lesson 5, we were supposed to prepare backgrounds on four individual A4 grounds (approximately 8.5x11.5 paper), and then paint four portraits in a row, one after another, attempting to do them quickly, brushily, and spontaneously to keep the time around 20-30 minutes apiece.

I didn't quite have it in me to paint for that long under the circumstances; I find following along while Emma talks quite enervating after a while, because I am used to painting while listening to music, and the start and stop of the video while I watch and catch up produces tension. So while I can paint for hours when I'm "on my own," in this case I had to take a break after the first portrait.

Also, while Emma wanted us to leave certain details (like hair) to blend into the background rather than being definitively executed, the hairdo on the girl in the first reference photo was so charming that I couldn't resist reproducing it. So my first portrait came out a lot more precise than what we were supposed to be aiming for; but I'm really happy with it, and feel like I still kept a lot of the spontaneity of the brushwork even so. I did end up painting out most of the background, so as to highlight the hair; but I made it thin on one side so some of the background paint and pencil marks would show through.

"Corona" (for her hair, not the virus!)—acrylic paint, watercolor pencils, charcoal, and Stabilo pencil on 140-lb. Fluid coldpress watercolor paper, approx. 9x11 inches.