Tuesday 4 February 2014

Figure painting

After a few weeks of despair and wondering what I am supposed to be doing, lost in the wilderness of too much choice and having to commit to something, I am beginning to see a glimmer at the end of a dark winter tunnel.
 Having a model on Friday for six weeks has been my breakthrough.The time goes quicker and I feel more focused.

The first couple of sketches were painted in 5 minutes, oil on prepared paper.
Hardly enough time to mix any paint, the job was just to get paint on the paper and makes very quick decisions about where to put it.


The mood and energy of the colours were the starting point and then trying to get the figure to emerge out of the colours.





















The painting on the left was a two hour attempt and my challenge was to get the composition to work. The model was beautifully still and had a wonderful atmosphere of calm in a collection of yellow and purple colours.


















This painting was done
in three hours and the background was a cacophony of reds, , pinks and touches of green. She wore grey and the light was strong and overhead.
Trying not to get the red to dominate was difficult and also the fact that after each break, the folds in her skirt were always different.
I enjoyed trying to get the colours to work together, getting the highlights to sparkle with the yellow light and trying to indicate the slight twist in her body.




















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