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Sofia Loren (Work in progress)
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Message
Posted
I received an A5 sketch book today with heavy paper and decided I would make a start on Sofia Loren.
This is a scene from The Millionairess which was a bit before my time but is a very memorable scene
I sketched out the outline so far and have just begun to block out the colours using burnt umber and white so far...
Despite the size this still took over an hour, and is going to be a slightly different method of working for me as unlike normal where I try to paint in accurately to begin with I am going to try and get the whole page covered in paint first and the refine it as I go. Also I know I have a tendancy to concentrate on the foreground and put the background in as an afterthought so I will try and work on the background first. (though I think naturally one works on specific colours at a time... if you have it mixed you put it in...)
Despite the size this still took over an hour, and is going to be a slightly different method of working for me as unlike normal where I try to paint in accurately to begin with I am going to try and get the whole page covered in paint first and the refine it as I go. Also I know I have a tendancy to concentrate on the foreground and put the background in as an afterthought so I will try and work on the background first. (though I think naturally one works on specific colours at a time... if you have it mixed you put it in...)
Posted
Blocking out the colour a little more...
I am not being too accurate with the colours at present though I see I will have my work cut out for multiple reasons...
Firstly there will be lots of mixing, if I am to actually gradient in bits like the stockings (three different opacity's of black over flesh combined with shading, numerous shades through net curtain in background) I will have to pay attention... also since it is on a small scale one doesn't like to mix too much paint, but because of this the paint is drying, meaning I will need to remix (and match) to move on to another area and also if I wish to do wet into wet I won't have long to do it.
This will be a learning curve no question, but first things first will be to get some basic covering down on the paper...
Posted
It is acrylic.
Really its the only medium I have any experience with, and it has its good and its bad points.
Most of the time I love that it dries quick, but then if you want to blend that makes life more difficult as you have no time.
I am dreading working on her thighs, not sure whether I should gradient it all in flesh and then wash black over it to darken the bands of stocking material or to try and mix and blend opaque. I never thin actrylics with anything, I don't have any medium to thin with and water is a no no if thinning beyond 30% water.
I am hoping my thin brushes turn up soon as I am working with a brush too big for the picture really...
Also I am wondering whether I am going to even bother trying to bend all the skin sections at all, I kind of like that it looks representative but not like its trying to be a photo... on the other hand I should practice because I have two other paintings in my mind at present. The first is a topless self portrait of myself (which should help me build some more experience mixing realistic skin tones) and the second is a miniature on copperplate of my muse...I want to do a colour version of a black and white photo I have of her and her skin is like porcelain, I have something in my mind like Richard Cosway but I haven't his talent and we don't use waterco;our on ivory anymore (and if we did I wouldn't know where to start)
I kind of like it as it is, maybe I won't spend more time on it trying to make it look more realistic...
Posted
I'm not the one to comment on acrylic, I use it rarely. With watercolour I'd probably use glazes over skin colour for the stockings. Looking at your source picture, with acrylic I think I'd mix several tones of the skin (darkening to represent the stockings, of course), and paint them in one go, rather than attempt glazing. But it's looking good so far.