new portrait from pine ridge: "i am lakhota"

i have hit a bit of a lull lately due to a variety of circumstances i won't bore you with. suffice it to say that i think it (the sparse postings) will continue for a little while as we are now getting ready for company....granddaughter....visiting at the end of june, brief trip to the pacific northwest for daughter's graduation from nursing school, and still shaking off this virus. but last week i was obligated to do a demo at the monthly meeting of the eastbank artists and i will post the progress of the painting here today and see how i do finishing it before we leave early next week.

this is marlene. she is lakhota, who are part of the oglala sioux tribe inhabiting pine ridge reservation. she tries to maintain some of the old ways while living in the present. she is always present while we are at the clinic in porcupine making sure we are taken care of the way people should be who are doing something for the lakhota. she makes indian tacos on fry bread and generally makes sure we are entertained. she has a delightful dry sense of humor and i am proud to call her friend. she agreed to this picture to which i will try to do justice as a portrait.

i started by drawing a light pencil (i use a mechanical pencil with hb leads, 0.7mm) likeness of marlene on a piece of 16"X20" 140# cold press fabriano artistico extra white paper. once i was satisfied with the drawing i lightly drew a kneaded eraser diagonally across the drawing to remove excess graphite and reduce the intensity of the pencil lines. deciding to put down an initial wash before painting her features, i used a 1" flat sable brush and quinacridone gold and alizarin crimson permanent mixed slightly on the palette for the flesh tones making the center of her face warmer and intending on the *left* (*=from the model's perspective) side of her face to be somewhat darker in value as it is in shadow. these are new colors for me for the flesh tones and we'll see how they work. so far i think they were a good choice. i made sure that i connected the figure to the border of the painting using light washes of a variety of colors that more or less represented her clothing inferiorly and cerulean blue up top. this is the stage that i took to the meeting. i worked on her nose, two eyes and *left* side of face at the meeting and soon as i shoot a photo i will post that (probably later today).