ACEO Morgan Portrait
3-1/2 by 2-1/2 inches
One of the things I love about the classical painting method is that as a painting nears completion, it sometimes takes only a few brush strokes to go from not finished to finished.
Take this painting, for example. When I sat down to work on it again, I didn’t think it was all that close to being finished. The horse’s coat was flat and uninspiring. The details were also flat and uninspiring. Truth be told, the idea of painting at all was uninspiring because of a lingering headache from the afternoon.
But I wanted to be able to say I’d at least worked on the painting, so I sat down with it.
And when I put it back up to dry, I was wondering if I should sign it or not.
The work that was done was quite straight forward. A layer of Raw Sienna applied dry brush and brushed out to a very thin layer. Burnt Sienna brushed into that everywhere but in the highlights, followed by Burnt Umber in the shadow areas. This part of the work was done with a 1/8″ inch sable flat and went quickly.
Next was a mixture of Titanium White and Raw Sienna to add highlights. These areas were deliberately painted more opaquely. I attempted to draw them in with a 10/0 golden taklon round. One stroke and done; no adjusting, no tweaking, leave it alone. For someone who likes to ‘tweak’ as much as I do, the one-stroke-and-done method is tough!
I followed the highlights by adding darker darks where necessary. Ivory Black was stroked into the inside of the ears, around the muzzle and mouth and under the chin. I did allow a little bit more fussing in these areas because smoother gradations were necessary.
The painting session ended with the eye, which I reshaped using Ivory Black, as well.
And all of a sudden, the portrait was looking finished!
In the end, I decided not to sign it, but to wait at least until the paint has a chance to dry and I can take another look at it with a fresh eye. But for now, it’s look great and I’m very well pleased with the effort.
©Copyright 2008 by Carrie Lewis. See original post here.
To learn more about this artist, visit Carrie Lewis’s website.
