Wednesday, August 27, 2008

August 27 - One from a Workshop

In one of the earlier workshops I taught this year, the question came up about how to deal with the Color System and human skin.

Now, I know there are many, MANY "rules" about painting human skin, and confusion reigns. What I have found in working with the translucent nature of skin with the underlying blood of a living organ, the way to make it come to life is to "flip the boxes" in the Color System. Use warms in the shadows and cool mixes in the lights. Eeek!!

I started this boy on a beach to demonstrate this for a workshop. I originally planned to only do the figure (not my normal method) and finish it later. But I worked it through the material I had on hand and almost finished it back in March. The canvas went with me to Sebastopol, and I finished it up there.

The area of transition between the light and shadow has to have the most intense coloration to continue to convince the viewer that skin is translucent and alive. This is a 9 x 12 oil, and its progress and source material will continue tomorrow.

On another note, here I am celebrating my big sixtieth birthday at Medieval Times last month--and still losing those excess pounds with Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution. I've never felt better! My sister is a card artist, and I'm showing off one of her creations.

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1 comment:

Sandy Sandy Art said...

Good to hear from you, girl. Two emails in two days! It's been a while. Glad to see you are back at it! A VERY HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY TO YOU ELLEN! You are looking quite svelte indeed. Congratulations and Best Wishes, Sandy Sandy