Day 11

I made an oops with the date yesterday, which was the 10th, so today is actually Day 11. This model is from Day 9; I loved how weird she is with her strange chiffon clothing and flower-pot hat and her sadsack expression, but I didn't love what the artist-in-residence on Sketchy decided to do with it—she focused on the background and clothing colors and painted the face and hair all in black and white—so I did my own rendering instead, maximizing the pinks and purples and browns but letting her keep her black hair (for which I used Payne's Grey, because I don't like stark black in watercolor!).

I just found out that the model's name is Emily (the photographer is Judith), but I see her being happier going through life as a Roxane, or maybe a Lilith? Emily is Jane Austen. This gal is more Daphne du Maurier from Don't Look Now. Anyway, I had fun with her, and decided to forego the giant flowers in the background for a faint stencil pattern of diamond shapes reminiscent of harlequin, which is how she comes across to me. I painted them on in white gesso; my intention was to then use a deep color, maybe an ultramarine, to make them pop, but instead I switched off and coated the background with a layer of metallic gold medium. I like the resulting color all right, but it didn't  do justice to the stencil pattern, which is barely discernible in person and not at all in the scan! But this is how we learn...

"Sy1123_Emily"—pencil, watercolor, gesso, a little Uniball pen, and stencil on 90-lb. Strathmore coldpress, 9x12 inches.

Day 10

I finally got back to the "drawing board," i.e., making a new portrait painting from Sktchy. I had a health "oops" that set me back about a week in the excellent recovery I've been having lately (read all about it here), and haven't felt up to painting, but today's symptoms are much milder, and I needed to pass the time until I had my healthcare visitor—yes, they're back—so this is Day 10, even though this is the model from Day 8. I loved her quizzical, upward-gazing expression, and the somewhat casual but nonetheless calculated way the artist, Wayne Smith, painted her, so I gave it a shot myself.

The downlighting was fun, and I liked the pastel palette with just hints of stronger color here and there. I didn't quite capture her fey quality, but I daresay Bronwyn would be able to recognize herself from this portrait, so it's all good.

"Sy1123_Bronwyn"—Pencil and Paul Jackson watercolors on 140-lb. Fluid coldpress, 8x11 inches.