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Stage 5
So, Monday night I sprayed the painting surface with Blair retouch varnish. There are other brands, but Blair is the best in the spray can. I used Grumbacher once and it shot out of the can in a stream and went SPLAT onto my painting! Real nice. No more Grumbacher. [I usually brush on Holbein retouch when I finish a painting, by the way.] Tuesday morning, I had a nice, even, grippy surface upon which to work.
As I had mentioned in the previous post, I remind the students to try and look for any major drawing issues in the first posing session of the class (Kirsten sits for 20 minute intervals with a 5 minute break in between). When seeing the model and the painting together after having been away from it for a week, things that one might have overlooked suddenly become (sometimes painfully) obvious.
This reminder in and of itself seems obvious - but, if you don't address this issue first thing, then it becomes more difficult to pinpoint problem drawing areas once you engage in color mixing and hue shifting and correcting values, etc. Perhaps it is less difficult for the consummate professionals to shift gears constantly - and it is something to which one should aspire - but for most students of the craft, attacking one problem at a time is enough.
That being said, I had an issue to tend to in regard to drawing. I noticed her left eye was not on the correct axis according to the perspective of her head. I had painted it as if her eyes were level with mine - but they are not. I'm looking slightly down on her (no model stand, just a stool), so the near (right) eye should be lower than the far (left) one. When comparing my painting with her, it became clear that the right eye was correct, therefore, the left eye was too low. Also, her forehead plane was a little too flat on that side, so I fixed that up, too. (Note the differences between the last post and this post. I posted a closeup, as well, so the changes are easily seen.)
After tending to these things, I went back into the top planes, separating them further by adding white mixed with just enough cad orange and yellow to keep it warm. I also did some detail work in the eyes, adding catchlights and some dark accents. Notice that the eyes' catchlights (specular highlights near the pupils are not blazingly light as one might see in a magazine photo. Here, they originate from the fill light coming through the window across the room. So, in coming from a secondary light source, they are not terribly strong, and should be recorded as such.
As usual, I am teaching throughout, so that's all I was able to complete. There is one woman in the class who has painted a good deal, but it's mostly self-taught from National Geographic photo portraits. I must say, she has shown great improvement from those pieces (which she had shown me) which I attribute mainly to just working from life. What better reference is there? I'm happy for her progress.
I should mention that I have the students working on a home project of a self-portrait. So far, there are great results. It's great fun, this class!
P.S. A fellow instructor commented that the background texture (which is just underpainting) competed too much with the subtle rendering in her head. I'm thinking about adding a smoother background tone, but part of me sort of likes the underpainting, too. This is like a cliffhanger episode: What will he decide?!?!
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