The electronic critic

Something I have recently discovered is that once you scan something and put it up on the computer screen, all is revealed! What is it about the electronic eye that sees every flaw when the human eye can't? It's frustrating.

I painted a portrait today for a Secret Santa exchange (yes, I know I'm late, but we have until Jan. 11th to get it there), and was completely satisfied with it...until I scanned it and saw that one side of her face was noticeeably flatter/thinner than the other, that her mouth wasn't at quite the right angle, and that I needed to reshape a couple of teeth to look like her actual smile. So, I picked it back up off the scanner, and filled in the cheek, re-slanted the top lip a little, and fixed her teeth, and now, at last, I think I have a good likeness.

It was supposed to be a $15 value, but it was also supposed to encompass "what you do" as a "creative," and this is what I do...so Angie's getting a portrait.

No worries about her seeing this unless I call it to her attention; it was a random draw-a-name exchange on Instagram, and I don't know her from Adam. And I used a screenshot from a video she posted as my source photo. But I hope that when she receives it she is pleased with her little Christmas portrait.

"Angie"—pencil and acrylics and Stabilo (brown) on watercolor paper, 8.5x11 inches. I used one of my abstract backgrounds because she is already quite a pink young lady, from Toledo, Ohio!

Pensive

I was looking up some poetry for someone today and came across a photo of Anaïs Nin in an uncharacteristically pensive pose, with face propped on hand. It was black and white, but based on a few color photos of her I was able to get a general idea of her hair color at this point in her life (earlier and later she must have dyed it dark/black, I think, because it was so radically different), and I extrapolated the rest based on the light in the photo.

I also, of course, used my leftover-paint background as a basis for the color palette. These paintings are a little pale and a little pink sometimes, but for this particular painting the colors seemed appropriate. I'm enjoying this sort of scrubby painting method I'm using on these.

I thought about breaking out some gold/gilt paint for the necklace, but decided it would take away from the otherwise extremely matte feel of this, so I stuck with paint. Naples Yellow is an extremely versatile color, working for blonde hair, gold jewelry, and some skin tones as well. 

"Anaïs"—pencil, acrylic paints, and a little Stabilo All pencil in brown, on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.

The power of suggestion

I am enjoying the employment of random backgrounds to suggest the subject matter for each next painting. I don't know how much longer I will pursue this trend, but it's fun to use the leftover paint from the previous work to create a new background that in turn dictates the kind of painting that will be made next.

After I painted Leonor Fini, the colors I mostly had left over were all the ones used for her skin tones—Naples Yellow, Titan Mars Pale, and some Magenta. I used them to make a new background, but wondered what I would do with one so relentlessly, well, PINK. Today, though, I browsed my saved reference photos and found one of a wonderful old lady with bright blue eyes, wrapped up in a hat and fur coat and standing in front of a gray coastline. Her face was such a beautiful combination of white, pink, and a little pale blue/lavender that I knew I had found today's subject. Here's an early "process" photo to show how I started.

As I did with the others, I almost used the paint more as a stain than as an opaque coating, allowing the background to show through or at least to dictate what I used on top of it so as to preserve its effect.

I didn't reproduce the cold gray background because I liked keeping this one, but I did incorporate a little turquoise (after I used it to mix her eye color) to drop it back a bit and give it a more delicate sunrise feel.

I also didn't paint in all of her many wrinkles, but rather tried to convey their presence by both the face shapes and the directionality of some of the paintbrush strokes. I could have done more detail, but I think the idea of age is sufficiently conveyed here by the depth of the eyelids, the gently sagging cheeks and jaws, and some of the facial creases.

I wish I had thought ahead to give a better impression of the hat and coat as fur, but I was primarily focused on them as a frame for her face, so they are fairly matte.

"Pink Lady"—pencil, acrylics, and a little Stabilo All, on Fluid 140-lb. coldpress watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.

And I have another background made from her leftovers for another day.