Madison

"Madison"

Oil on Canvas Paper - 11" x 14"

This is my most recent portrait done of a lovely young lady who posed at the Friday afternoon figure painting session at Bay Arts. For those that have seen this painting before under a different title, I had to make one up at the time as I did not catch her name. I've since found out it was "Madison" so there you go.  :-)

Once again, I did not complete it in the 3 hours the session is held, but I'd say it was about 80% done. I did have to re-do the drawing somewhat at home as I noticed that her nose had gotten too long in my original attempt. But I managed to keep all my color notes intact as well as the basic feel of that original sitting. I did some dry scumbling which I've been avoiding doing because I want to keep the painting wet as much as possible. I know it's not the case, but glazing and scumbling feel like cheating to me, but then that's just my hang up. 

Overall I think I'm most pleased with this one so far. I've managed to let some greenish tones show through the skin tone. Much easier since she was rather olivey in her complexion. Mike Malm once said to me (he may not have been the first to say this) that "value does all the work but color gets all the credit." Meaning if your values are dead on, it allows you to push the color in ways you may not necessarily see in nature, but it will still appear right.

I'm trying to do that. I think I had some success here. I hope so anyway.  :-)