Portrait Night

Wednesday night is portrait class, but I was tired and the thunder storms moving through the area gave me a pretty nice excuse to stay home. I found a photo reference for a portrait painting and did a quick portrait oil sketch.

I find that sometimes an at-home portrait sketch is really helpful. I love going to class and getting to paint from life, but I very quickly fall into my usual pattern for painting a face. I find that if I have some new things I want to try out, painting from life is not the way to do that. Painting from life is so cognitively overloading that attempting new things can be difficult. Working in the studio, in controlled conditions, in a temperature controlled and comfortable environment.

Today I was trying a slightly different medium and really focusing on the brush & canvas combination. I also used a weird limited palette, and tried some different combinations for flesh tones. So I guess what I’m saying is it was a good time, and I got a chance to try a few things and focus on the results to see how a variety of different variables play out.

-ZR