Olivia #2

For an assignment two weeks ago, I chose to paint Olivia, a photo reference I had used before, for another class, in another medium.

The assignment on this one was to draw her in pencil, then wash over the whole thing with acrylic inks, and mess with the background in various ways—salt, splashes of water, and so on. I did the pencil drawing, but then decided to diverge from the assignment by using stencils in the background, so I applied them using white gesso. You can't see them at all when it's white on white, but then when you wash over them with the ink, the stenciling partially resists the color wash and shows up lighter against a darker background of ink soaked into paper.

I like the effect, but I messed up a bit on this, because I wasn't careful enough with my stenciling and so got some in the hair area on one side, where I didn't want it. So the hair didn't come out quite like I had planned.

In Angela Kennedy's version, the hair went straight up, as if the model was underwater and her hair was floating. I decided to send mine to the side instead, as if she's standing in a high wind.

The ink effect I achieved was quite subdued, because instead of using an ink color foreign to human faces (purple in Angela's case), I used a flesh-toned ink. It was so pale that I went over the background surrounding the face with a darker brown ink, to provide at least some contrast, and blend better with the hair. Then the rest of the picture was accomplished by painting with a high-water-volume brush in watercolor.

It didn't occur to me, but a friend of mine said she looks like the woman in The Birth of Venus, by Botticelli, and although I initially scoffed, I do see the resemblance. She's 9x12 on Fluid 140-lb. watercolor paper.

I painted Olivia a few years back, for a different class (Emma Pettit's) in a different medium (acrylic). It's sharper and more defined; I like the softness of this one, but I loved the intruding background and rust-colored shadows on that one.

 

(Botticelli on the left, my acrylic of Olivia on the right.)

I didn't feel like blogging at the time I painted this, but since I haven't been painting since then, I thought I'd toss it up here with some words about the process. Hoping to do another painting soon.