Autumn Nymph is finally finished!
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| Autumn Nymph 20" x 16" / 51cm x 41cm |
And one item of blue, which turned out to be an indigo bunting. I originally thought of painting-in a blue morpho butterfly -- those neat flutterbies with the iridescent / metallic blue wings. However, their wings are brown on the undersides, and looking up at one would display more brown than blue. So I went with the bird instead.
Frankly, I've got a long ways to go when it comes to painting portraits or the figure in the classical-realism style I'm addicted to. I received some help with the face from friend and master painter Virgil Elliott. I've learned that doing this in my fast-drying acrylic adds significantly to the challenge. If I decide to pursue this subject matter, I may have to use oil paint for portraits. Or learn how to get around the problem of having little time to blend colors smoothly.
The woman was a former co-worker of The Wiffee's back in the 1980s. I took a series of photos of her -- she even had some ballet skills to help her look graceful and even more awesome than she was! (I shot black and white film -- I have no idea now why I did that instead of color!) She's a bit on the plump side, but "curviness" happens to be attractive, and even a turn-on, to me. I know lots of other males agree with me.
The painting sort of looks like the real person, but not entirely. Virgil suggested I spend a lot more time just drawing and improving my skills. I'd have to agree with him.
I don't know if I'll try to sell this, but I'm thinking -- this one may be just for ME! It was a great learning experience, but I need to get better at rendering the face and figure.
Like they say: Back to the drawing board!
This piece will appear on my yet-to-be-launched website, www.SurrealMark.com. In the meantime, my landscapes still appear on my existing site(s):
www.SouthwestSpaces.com
www.MarkJunge.com
2 comments:
I have seen acrylic paintings that are very smoothly blended. I assume the artists either use some medium to slow the drying time, or have some other technique up their sleeve, but it seems it can be done.
Either way, this painting is nicely done. Better than anything I could come up with anyway. :-)
That's true, Brian. I know there is a retarder that slows drying, and if I paint small areas at a time -- with paint or with glazes -- it IS possible to get some good blending. I was taking my time with this, but to the detriment of blending. ☺
Thanks for your comments!
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