Feb

25

Beginning A New Portrait

Filed Under Carrie Lewis 

Well, I chickened out!

Last Friday, I shared a new painting I had just started and that I intended to paint using a complementary under painting method I first learned with colored pencils. The painting in question was a commissioned portrait. Last Friday, I had painted the background area magenta and the horse blue.

Since then, I have been having second thoughts. Yes; rich, vibrant colors were possible with this method, but didn’t complements also gray each other? Did I really want to ‘gray down’ the rich bay of this horse’s shining coat?

The bottom line came this morning when I checked the canvas and it was still as fresh and workable as it was when I painted it last Friday. If I continued with this route, I would have to wait at least a week, possibly two, before the paint was dry.

The decision was immediate. Save this canvas for another project and take up another 11×14 canvas and do a traditional under painting in earth tones.

So that’s what I did. In spite of taking what initially looked like a backward step, the painting progressed nicely throughout the day and was fully blocked in. There is still work to do. The background is complete, but the horse is lacking some vital highlights and the details of eyes, muzzle and ears need further development.

©Copyright 2008 by Carrie Lewis. See original post here.

Comments

One Response to “Beginning A New Portrait”

  1. walt kozier on March 13th, 2008 8:03 pm

    Carrie:
    I was viewing your paintings on horses and read you were glazing.Years ago( 1944) I studied under Jacque Maroger at The Maryland Institute of Art. He taught us how to make the Maroger Medium which I find the greatest ever for glazing.If you would like I would be happy to send you a small sample and a brief on how we used it.Also I am preparing a DVD on how to make it yourself. About a few months away.Take care and I hope to hear from you.Horses look great.

    walt kozier

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