That probably sounds funny to a non-painter, because after all, you're using the same materials you always do, and how different can the application be? But it is, significantly.
I draw a fairly intricate base portrait before I ever start a painting, while Kara roughs things in, using a grid to get the outlines in the right places, and then sketches an outline with a brush and some burnt umber liquid acrylic. I do the base color first and sometimes the highlights, and then add the darks, whereas Kara starts by putting in the darks so she can see her "map" for the portrait. I premix colors specifically, while she tries out different colors and tones and paints over them if she doesn't like them. I blend a lot, while she lets things be a little more raw and strokey (this part I didn't quite pull off). And her objective isn't a perfect likeness, it's a pleasing painting, while I am still pretty hung up on getting that resemblance down.
This was a really limited palette, with a few mixed colors, and I like the dramatic contrasts she encouraged (the reference photo was much more monochromatic). It was also a pretty quick painting to pull off, taking me under two hours start to finish (and I could have—and maybe should have—stopped even sooner!). I'll try some more like this.
I should note that the background wasn't part of the "Kara experience," but was rather a sheet on which I used leftover colors to make a substrate per Emma Petitt's admonishment not to waste paint!
There was no name listed on the photo, so I called her "Ingrid"—pencil, Stabilo, and acrylics on Fluid 140-lb. watercolor paper, 9x12 inches.
