father and son: change of plans

drawing and initial wash for "father and son"

for a number of reasons i decided to put off re-painting "catch me, grandpa." instead i am going to attempt a portrait-type painting of our son ben and his young son sollie while on an outing. the paper is a cold press, fabriano artisitico, 140#, sheet measuring 20"X16" but i am using only 19" of the height. the drawing was with HB graphite using a semi-contour approach. i hadn't done a painting with a baseline initial wash lately so i laid in a light value wash over the whole sheet making the center over the baby a more saturated, warm color using cadmium red light and cadmium yellow pale. everything receding from that was cooler, bluer, and less saturated. i used a 1" flat kolinski sable brush.

detail of face on "father and son"

when this was good and dry (tested by the absence of coolness when touched with the back of my hand) i started with the features. ben's nose was the first object of my attack  using the same colors i usually mix for caucasian skin, namely cadmium red light, raw sienna (it's in shade), and cerulean blue. putting in the underplane shadow and drawing the color both up and over the top and down into the upper lip using a clean, damp brush. this was followed by the *left* eye and then the *right* eye. the sequence i used is documented in numerous previous posts. the top of his forehead and temple areas were framed with burnt umber and cobalt blue with the lost edges on the *left* temple and *right* upper forehead near the part. i painted on an initial wash over the lips and shadow below the lower lip for the last of the work today.