Thursday, March 5, 2015

Great Grandma's Hat


Great Grandma's Hat
11 x 14
Oil on Raymar Panel

$750

Today I was working on skin tones.  Years ago when I started painting and learning about colors/skin tones/mixing colors I devised a formula of sorts to get me started...specifically for skin tones.  I used a base of yellow ochre, white and cadmium red light.  I would mix a nice pinkish color and then add in blues, greens and any other color that I thought the skin tones needed for shading and defining.  As I have learned more about color I have broadened my horizons by starting with different color combinations.  For this portrait of a little girl trying on her great-grandmother's hat I used a lot of blues and aqua colors mixed with reds and some ochres.  It was a fun experiment coupled with painting one of my favorite subjects.  A nice way to spend a cold, wintery, snowy day.  


1 comment:

  1. Portrait painters often start with the most unlikely colors, don't they?! I was watching a demo online yesterday, and the portrait ended up so beautiful and realistic. Yet the artist began with the shadow parts of the caucasian face in a muddy burnt umber color that was so dark, you sat there the whole time thinking there was no way that painting was going to turn out to look right. It did! Surprise!

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