27 April. Resolving painting of Jasmin with the apple

Reflection

OK, so there's a reason that lots of artists do the same things. .. I've always mixed as I go but am slowly falling into a better practice where I mix tones ahead of just plunging in. 

• Dark to light - ok, I get this now
• mixing tones in a range of values ahead of starting work - yup.. makes sense
• Colour charts- I hate them - they're too meticulously considered..but yeah.. I get it

Have to say, the best paint in the universe is Terre verde by Michael Harding, followed swiftly by the buff titanium and a good Paynes grey. They just work for so many things. 

So..to Jasmin and the apple.

Spent ages with a small fine brush, thinking about something Ian B had said in my tutorial - I'd said the reference was really over exposed and Ian pointed out the benefits of just leaning into that aesthetic -and not trying to correct it.. It's not just the white thats throwing me, I'm still (not deliberately) adding details to make it all make sense - so I decided to treat it a bit like my face in -a shadowy stroll - and soften and blurt painting - to be more true to the photo reference,

 This worked until it didn't, because it changed it and the things that were wrong jumped out. 

I softened all of the tones and shading around her mouth and then corrected the right side as it was too low. I'm happier with these colours - although my hubby asked why I'd made it all brown... but I'm slowly building back the pink and lighter tones (dark to light right!) 

 

then I decided that her face was too long and took to a digital edit to see what it was like if I brought her eyes down. 

Which worked and I ended the day on this... (it wasn't just the eyes being too high, the angle and forehead were too ... ). I've also painted to the edge of the canvas... which seems to be a thing thats happening...

Still playing with Digital editing to make sure its right and see what I need to correct.. weirdly, instead of the fine brush working, I'm going more and more back to a big brush.. 

Happy with the apple tones tho.

 

Also looked back at some previous stages and find the mouth to work better on this one. So... still going...

Also stumbled across some stickers- I've seen people at uni do these with cartoon and comic courses and graphic looking images but hadn't considered them for my work but I think they might work....