50/100! Whoohoo! I was curious when I started this project how my painting would change after doing so many portraits, and the main thing I can say is that I'm having more fun with them. I love the process of adding specific patches of color to develop the form--it's almost meditative. Almost. And I'm feeling much freer with the backgrounds. My main complaint with many of the portraits I have done in the past is that the figure doesn't feel integrated into the background, and the result is that, to me, they don't feel like complete paintings. So the fun I'm having with backgrounds also makes the paintings feel more complete to me. That's where my head is right now, anyway. I'm curious where it will be when I get to 100/100.
The reference photo has a lovely young woman in it, but she is in a sea of beigey mustard color, and I wanted to make the sea more sea-like (no offense to beigey mustard!). But how would that affect the color of her face? If she were really in an atmosphere of blue, wouldn't that reflect into her face in places? So I put a little bit of blue here and there--in her hair, and in the shadow below her cheekbone, and in the shadow below her chin. I'm hoping these touches integrate the figure and background.
For my colors today, I used what was already on my palette from a previous painting: 3 primaries, plus white, plus phthalo green. Wow, I love phthalo green, and that pigment was responsible for some of the yummy colors of the background.
Thank you to Ash K on the Museum app for the lovely reference photo. Here are some in-between shots:
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