Portrait 40/100

 

I started this painting the way I often do--trying to approximate a few main colors and then doing a second and possibly third pass to refine the image. But in the refining, I started fussing over details too soon, and the details were not coming out well. So I wiped out the details and changed things up. I made a grid, etching horizontals, verticals, and diagonals into the wet paint. Then I made the same lines over my reference photo using procreate. After that, I filled in each mosaic piece on my panel with an average color of paint for that tiny area. Following that, I started refining.

I first learned about making this kind of grid from watching Kevin Macpherson do it. He ties it (the magic grid) to making better compositions, but here I'm not thinking about the composition and instead just using it to fracture my subject and give me a fresh way to start the painting. 

This type of grid was also shown in a Loomis book as "informal subdivision." 

My palette consists of these oil paints: ultramarine blue, naphthol red, magenta, Hansa yellow medium, yellow ochre, and titanium white--slightly less limited than my usual palette. 6x6" linen panel.

 

Thank you to Zoey for the permission to post this painting of her.

Portrait 39/100

 

This is a paintover. I like painting over older paintings. It removes that old painting (which I don't love) from my stack, gives me a surface to paint on that already is primed with oil paint (I just sand it down a bit) and sometimes a ghost of the old painting shines through in interesting ways. I've been meaning to paint this portrait for a long time. It's a lovely reference photo taken by Bryce C Liston of model Vera. So thank you to those two for the inspiring reference!

8x8" oil paint on linen panel.

Portrait 38/100

I am pretty comfortable using a 3-primary plus white palette, so I dipped my toes into unfamiliar waters by using a split primary palette. I'm still not sure how to use this palette. I like the 3-primary because everything gets mixed with everything else and so the color harmony is pretty much guaranteed. That's not how I used this one. A lot of the sky colors are thanks to phthalo blue and magenta, whereas the skin colors are thanks to naphthol red mixes. More learnings are ahead, I hope! 

Here are some process shots:

Thank you to lotta love at the Museum by Sktchy app for the cool reference photo. 8x8" oil on panel.

Portrait 37/100

I have been taking an experimental color class by Zoey Frank, and it inspired me to try a different 3 primaries for this portrait. Titanium white and Hansa yellow medium are staying, but my blue is now phthalo blue and my red is quinacridone magenta. I enjoyed trying to match colors as best I could, even though some couldn’t quite get there. Thank you to Faeza Sa on the Museum app for the charming reference photo. I really like the shape of her hair.

Here are some process shots:

Portrait 36/100

 

I took a little hiatus from painting portraits to paint still lifes and a big cat. But my plan to do 100 in a year is still on! For this one, I used a 3 primary palette plus white, and drove it into a pretty high chroma state. It's my natural tendency that I'm trying to fight with.

Thank you to Paola ER on the Museum by Sktchy app for the lovely reference photo.