Briefly, I toned some smooth bristol board with a mixture of ochre and ultramarine blue watercolor. The final painting will benefit from this extra step.
I was getting ahead of myself with the brush, wasn't really seeing the image until I paused and did this drawing study. I started painting this same image in oil a few weeks back, not very successfully. Especially important, the locations of the core shadow and the reflected light, which define shapes on the shadow side. This warm-cool drawing forced me to observe temperature shifts and the interaction of light with the form. The shadows are warmed by an overhead incandescent light. She is lit from her right by indirect sunlight, from her left by reflected light.
My purpose in this portrait of my 12-year-old niece, Molly, was to convey the innocence of adolescence. I like the illusion of color produced by this monochrome palette, partly due to the colored ground, but also because the viewer fills in the colors, which makes the results so interesting. I've wanted to experiment with this method since seeing Robert Liberace's drawings at the Arcadia Gallery last May. Today's post includes some 3-color chalk drawings I did during the break.