"Laura"
Oil on canvas 10×8 inches
August 2009
See this painting as a work in progress here
"Laura" belongs to the following groups:
1 on 1: The Fine Art of Portraiture , * Painted Ladies *, Complex Simplicity of Art, "Real" Life Artwork (No Photography), All Around the Styles, British Painters, Creative, Talented, and Unknown, Fine Arts, Friends of RedBubble, Oil Painting, Painters In Modern Times - TWO PER DAY, Pets and People, Realist Traditional Art, Shameless Self-Promotion, The Eyes Have It, United Kingdom and Woman Appreciation Available for sale asGreeting Cards, Matted Prints, Laminated Prints, Mounted Prints, Canvas Prints and Framed Prints
Scott d'Almeida
brilliant
Linda Callaghan
looking forward to seeing the finished portrait ..found it fascinating seeing the stages of your work…how do you know what colours to use though or does it not matter untll the last final layers?
Martin Kirkwood replied
That is a great question Linda and the simple answer is “I don’t know before hand what colours to use”. All of my paintings are experiments.
Some artists, far more technically skilled than I am can mix the exact hue and tone they desire on a pallette before applying it to a canvas.
I very rarely mix colours on a pallette but instead just experiment with layer upon layer of glazes of a single pigment until it looks right.
hollypaino
I like it as it is. It has an impressionistic quality to it. Very nice!
Linda Callaghan
well I reckon you know what you are doing..portraits are my weakness and I am nervous about attempting them..but should give them a go ! congratulations on the feature!
Martin Kirkwood replied
Thanks, I have an idea of what am doing but nothing is definite. The same principles to mixing colours on a palette apply to overlaying glazes on a canvas.
A glaze of the translucent Alizarin Crimson over dry Cadmium Yellow will produce a wonderful orange but the opaque yellow painted over a deep crimson will just appear yellow.
Not all pigments are suitable for glazing though. Cadmium oil colours for example are inherently opaque and will obliterate all the layers beneath.
Linda Callaghan
thanks for sharing….always a willing pupil I am! :-D
Rahul Kapoor
Hey, This has come out really well.. Well guess you’re forcing me to run another women portrait challenge .. lol :)
Martin Kirkwood replied
Yeah, just give me more notice next time so I can finish it in time. LOL