I used my background with Deb Weiers to study the background and utilize what was already there, so I started this drawing with the lips, since there was a red, lip-shaped section in the lower right. I like how it offset the face so it's not just another front-and-centered portrait.
Again, our goal was to work fast, to work loose, to paint in blocks and not go back to finesse our strokes or blend. I do think I did better here, because I tried to focus on the beauty of the paint rather than the relation to the color on the real face.
We were to paint the hair some intense shade of blue, but I had so many pretty effects underneath that I was reluctant to cover it all up, and left a few bits of the raw sienna, red, and black showing through, along with some squiggly pencil marks.
The last stroke, after we painted another picture of a pretty girl, was to deconstruct it by rolling a brayer full of the blue paint across her face and then to go back in with white paint in the negative spaces to take out some of the outline. That was a challenge, but I do like the result. I didn't go as far as she did with the white because, again, I didn't want to cover the things I liked about my saved background, but I did lose some edges here and there.
And finally, we used the Stabilo marking pencil judiciously to bring back the intensity of her eyes and to give her face some definition, although not to slavishly outline absolutely everything again.
I'm pretty happy with this! It's nerve-wracking to create, but once it's done, you can really appreciate the technique!
"Blue Hair"—charcoal, acrylic paints, Stabilo All 8046, on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 9x11 inches.
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