Its painting Wednesday with Kerrie again, hot sunny day, her garden is exploding with colour, but let's remain focused with the seemingly unexciting 3 colours squeezed out on my palette. Ho hum! Yes the Yellow Ochre, the Cadmium Red and the cool Black.
Today, I feel cheerful and somewhat reckless... let's get stuck into it and not take ourselves too seriously. To hell with creating an accurate likeness and I just concentrate on a brighter palette for another of my 'selfie' with a focus on mid tone values...
In the previous painting 'Self Portrait II', the focus was on the light values and the dark values of the face half in shadow. Also I was attempting an accurate likeness through constant measuring and comparing.
The more you understand tonal values, the more you can start to manipulate the painting other than what you see... you are no longer slave to painting exactly what you see, you have your own internal 'lighter' or 'darker' button... just like on your iPhone camera!
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| Self Portrait III (at Kerrie's) |
Just to clarify the pic below, I have set up my easel with a palette of our now very familiar colour pigments, and set a mirror as close as possible to the easel, so that I can see my face clearly.
After a quick sketch (I'm getting to know how my features are placed by now) I attempt to set out the correct tonal values, as opposed to correct colour hues. If you concentrate on accurate tone values, you can place the most outrageous colours and you work will still work out... that's how some of the French Fauvists and German Expressionist did it.
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| Stage 1 |
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| Just about there! Let's not overwork it... |
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| Kerrie's garden breaking out into summer... no Zorn limited palette colours there!!! |
This is extraordinaryly beautiful. There's so much scuptural form and movement created in your painting style and use of color! Just a lovely portrait! Beautifully crafted!
ReplyDeleteNan Raden, Beautifubodymindspirit.com
Thank you for you kind encouraging words Nan!
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