I started this painting a little different than I normally do. I knew the blue sheet hanging over head was going to be a bit of a dominating force as far as color harmony goes so I wanted to started of with a paynes gray wash to begin with and then made my drawing over that. Then I started with the sheet. Most often I try to cover the whole canvas before really getting to any detail anywhere, but I wanted to make sure that early on I got everything in the right color and value family. So I started with the blue sheet to get that settled in to build my world of blue.
Once I get the blue sheet in my next goal was to attack the pillow in the foreground to make sure I had some of the brightest whites in the picture brushed in at an early stage in the painting as a way to really keep an eye on my range of value. It is hard to tell in these images but the subtle temperature changes in the pillow really set off the blue reflected light.
Then I worked some of the skin tones in a little bit so I could test the skin against my reflected light and make any adjustments to the reflected light on the pillow
Here I just wanted to make sure that I got the strongest highlight down on the sheet above her face again as a way to keep my range of value in check
Here you can see me testing little patches of color to find the flesh tone that I wanted. It is hard to get a good idea of the colors in these pictures because of the glare and the low yellow lighting of my room.
Then I spread it all around to face. The colors seem a little saturated at this point as I am trying to lay down the base for capturing the glow of her face. At this point I am really trying to make her glow a little bit, but at the same time trying to not pull her too far forward in the space with color choice.
Here I just used some highlights to give her face some shape.
These hairnets were a bit of a pain in the butt, but they were also kind of fun to paint. I like drawing and painting things with some degree of transparency. I might even make a little tutorial on it at some point if anyone is interested. The trick is really just not to get discouraged in the early ugly stage.
At this point it is all about adding temperature and tone differences while adding in your medium shapes. I also had to do a bit of blue-ing down on the top of the head underneath the hairnet since I initially got it too warm.
Then I just added the details and highlights.
Laying in a face. Nothing to really see here
Blocking in the face mask
Adding highlights and temperature changes, and voila an almost done painting.
I still have quite a few touch ups to do on this to get everything cleaned up and in the same world so to speak. Overall, I really like the range of value throughout the piece as well as the sense of depth.
Although this was a pretty technical photo I think it was a fun and interesting photo choice. The composition is just naturally interesting to me. There is basically a big x marks the spot right above one of the main focal points made from the sheets in the back the cables by her head and the crease in her arm.
The angle that the pillow comes out of the frame in the foreground really added a nice sense of space. You can't tell in this photo, but if you walk in front of the painting at just the right angle it almost seems as if you are stepping into the room.
I have had a lot of fun with this one and feel like I learned quite a bit. What do you think?
