carrying on with dreadlock girl and "dazzled by the light."

"the tao of dreadlock maintenance": nearing completion

i put a few more glazes on the piece that i think i am going to entitle, "the tao of dreadlock maintenance." they were mainly on the background but also on her kilt. before we left borrego springs i really didn't like where this piece was going, but now that i have worked on it in a "proper" studio out of the grit, wind, etc., it is starting to grow on me. i think that the main thing is that i like the pose. it won't be my best effort but i think it will be worth keeping. i also will say that i will probably attempt another in the neat future on hot press paper and see what the out come is.

"dazzled by the light 1.0" (14"X11")

"dazzled by the light 2.0" (15"X11")

there have been a lot of decisions and work on the little girl squinting out in the sun. i worked a bit more on this painting and it started looking a little "chalky" to me. some of what i am talking about isn't that obvious in the photo, but in real life it is a bit.......?dull? after quite a bit of thought i began wondering if somehow the initial wash and the subsequent "correction" i put in after some work to change the tint from pinkish to more orangish was partly to blame. so, i embarked on a bit of an experiment by starting another painting of the same subject . this time, however, i will just start in on the features and modeling and eschew the initial light wash. the colors that i used were the same for the modeling and features as i the last piece and i used the same #16 round brush. here are the two versions where i left off work on them yesterday. please feel free to comment regarding which you prefer, if either! just part of the process that i really like. someone once said ( i can't remember who was the original speaker, but ted nuttall was who relayed it to me) that the biggest detriment to producing good art was a slavish concern with the end product. i'm not sure if this quandary i am in right now is in accordance with this as i am more into the process, or against this tenet as i worry about what it will look like in the end. probably a bit of both.