"red boots splashing": another painting

photo for next painting

i found these photographs done on actual film in the cupboard a week or so ago. they seemed to be fading and were at least 34 years old so i quickly scanned them and added them digitally to our collection. among them was this photo of our daughter amanda who is now a labor and delivery nurse in seattle. so, you can see that she interrupted her promising career as a professional apple filcher to go on to other, if not more noble, endeavors. this was a time in her life she loved yellow and if there was an apple in our apartment, one was being carried around while it was consumed. i thought that it would make a nice painting if only to help preserve the memories.

i had obtained some fabriano artistico hot press paper last month when i was experimenting with smooth surfaces. i have played around with this particular brand enough since it arrived to know that i like it so i will use it for this painting. i took a 16"X20" piece and drew the figure of amanda using pretty much the whole sheet and made it somewhat off to the right side to give her *right* arm and hand room to reach forward as shown. here is the drawing which was done with a modified contour approach using a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. here is the result:  i artificially darkened the drawing so that it appeared readable in this format. the actual is quite light.

drawing for "red boots splashing"

first washes (more violet than irl)

as i frequently do in figures like this i started with the nose by painting the shadow on the under plane with cadmium red light, cadmium yellow pale and cerulean blue with a #4 round brush. after cleaning and shaking i manipulated the paint form that step to paint the top part of the nose just a bit up onto the bridge. i connected the nose to the upper lip with a light stroke of cerulean blue in the midline which also served to define the center shadow. i then moved on to the eyes. beginning with the *left* eye, i painted the shadow under the upper lid with the same colors as the nose but with more cerulean blue. right after that i put in the iris with cerulean blue allowing a bit of a bleed with the shadow. i only painted the top half being careful to avoid the highlight and then painting the lower half with clear water drawing pigment down. i tied that in with the lower lid by drawing the pigment down into the area below the eye. the medial socket was done next with cerulean blue that was drawn out laterally over the upper lid surface with the cadmium red/yellow mix. the eyebrow was painted in burnt umber wet-in-wet. by this time the iris had dried enough to put in the pupil wet-in-wet using, this time, mineral violet (don't ask me why...i just wanted something dark...and my brush went there.) this allowed a slight bleed with the iris. the lateral extent of the socket was explained by a mixed splotch of cerulean and the flesh colors that was carried up onto the forehead and down to the upper cheek.

i put in the shadow under the *left* side of the hood to blend in with the shape lateral to the socket. i also started to experiment with how i was going to do the rain coat. the tough part won't be the yellow, but deciding how to paint the shadows on the coat/hood. yellow is notoriously difficult to darken. my option will be a grayer yellow (like raw sienna/umber) quinacridone gold right out of the tube full strength, or a green. we'll see what seems to work best in a slightly later step. right now i am leaning toward the green.

i painted the *right* eye the same way as the other. the mouth was done with the flesh colors tending toward the red by dabbing paint in the two corners and middle of the upper lip and after cleaning the brush working that pigment out into the cheek, other parts of the lip and lateral portions of the lower lip. the shadow under the lower lip defines the lower aspect of the lip and was painted with cerulean blue and blended inferiorly with the flesh mixture. the cheeks were painted mainly in the cadmium reds/yellows. as i  moved into the neck i added some cerulean. the hair was streaks of quinacridone gold and burnt umber with strands scratched in as the sheen came off the paper. i knew that i wanted some violet in the background to contrast with the yellow of the rain coat and hood so i started with a varied wash just above the hood using ultramarine blue, mineral violet, burnt sienna, and cerulean blue as you see. i didn't want to do any more at this time so i tapered the edges so that i could start back up again later without a hard edge. that's all for now. more tomorrow. be well.