Portrait 35/100

I had a lot of phthalo blue and green left on my palette from a few days ago, so in the spirit of "waste not, want not," I found a reference image that might help me use it up (I did not use it up, as a little phthalo goes a long way). I also wondered how I would like starting the painting without an initial drawing. The answer is that I did like it, it was kind of fun, but I had to fix some major wonkiness along the way, as you can see in the progress series. My iPhone camera lightened this portrait in the progress series, but the main image at the top is from my scanner, which didn't adjust the exposure and is closer to the actual painting.

8x8" oil on panel. Thank you to "Double e" on Unsplash for the lovely reference photo.

Portrait 34

 

I like the long neck and slight attitude coming from the woman in the reference photo, so thank you to Sofia Carroll on the Museum by Sktchy app for posting it. The photo had a lot of stuff in the background, which I didn't want to strip away entirely, so I made geometric shapes out of it That's a clothes closet at the right! I used these colors: titanium white, burnt umber, naphthol red, hansa yellow medium, and ultramarine blue, and decided to keep most of his painting muted (in comparison to what I usually do with high chroma). 

8x8" oil on panel. Here is a progress series:

Portrait 33

 

I sometimes like to start with a colored underpainting, but I've learned from this one that green is not the best for portraits (duh!). It took a lot of paint to get rid of the green cast on this one. 

I usually stick to a 3-primary palette that includes ultramarine blue, but for this one I switched that out and used phthalo blue and veridian for the cools, because her drapery required a little more punch than what ultramarine can offer. I also got out my stencils--this one a big feather--to add a bit more interest to the background. The grayish background had already dried, so I put my stencil right on top of that and added a light blue oil paint. This painting is in oil on 8x8" mdf board. Thank you to "Bluep Er" on the Museum by Sktchy app for the reference photo.

Here are some process shots:

Portrait 32/100

Moving along with another portrait and another paint-over! Swipe to see process shots below and say goodbye to the Lilac-Breasted Roller. 

I've been enjoying starting with a 3-value block in for skin and for hair, and then I go to town on the details with whatever values and colors I think will bring the painting to a more finished state. But that 3-value block in is a great start--and from far away the painting looks about done!

Thank you to Anna Tria on the Museum by Sktchy app for the lovely reference photo. 6x6” oil paint on Gessobord.

Portraits 30-&31/100

 

I am going to turn many of my 100-portrait challenge pieces into tiny quickie sketches. I brought up two at the same time today. The idea was to fill in the faces with a dark, mid, and light tone, and then to add more correct dabs of color/value to make them match their references better.  Thank you to Bryce C Liston for the reference on the left and to Sarah Sedwick (Let's Face it 2025) for the reference on the right. 4x6” oil paint on paper.

Process photos below.

Portrait 29/100

I played with the reference photo in procreate, adding a semitransparent photo of flowers on top of the portrait. I erased out most of the flower photo that covered her face, leaving the flowers in the periphery. Thank you to "Mia :)" on the Museum app for the portrait reference. I added a few other colors to my regular lineup of 3 primaries and white. The visitors are veridian, cobalt violet, and burnt umber.  6x6” oil paint on Gessobord.

Here are some process shots (I painted on top of a previous still life painting):

Portrait 28/100

 

This is a common theme for me, because I see it a lot in my household. I used a limited palette of a red, yellow, blue, and white. This is my standard approach--it feels much simpler to me--but I should probably try out a split primary to see if I like that better.

I made a video of this one, so you can see an overview of the process. It's on my instagram page, here:

PROCESS VIDEO ON INSTAGRAM