I wanted to do another painting in the Florence Lee "method," and today was the day. I decided I wanted to do a horizontal rather than a vertical, just to mix things up, and found this reference photo I liked a lot, that included a hand for a little extra challenge. Plus, the hand is sort of stretching the woman's face out of shape where she leans on it, so that was fun too, to relocate the features to accommodate.
I am happy with this as a painting, but not so much as an example of Florence's method. I didn't stop to think that my base color, yellow ochre, was already one of the skin tones of this woman, so it doesn't have the same radical effect leaving the base color showing that it did when the background colors were blue or green. But I do like the technique of suggesting the hair and clothing while leaving some of the background in place instead of filling them in completely, so that worked.
It's a little over-painted in the face, because I didn't leave much of the pure yellow ochre. But like I said, I'm happy with the portrait.
"Jasmine"—gesso, charcoal, fixative, acrylic paints on thin birch board, 14x11 inches.
