Click on any photo to enlarge it for better viewing.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Medieval woman in thought

12X9" Pastels on Canson Paper

     My second go at a portrait ala Mike Beeman approach. I am finding that I like working from full darks and layering on the lights over them, as I progress through the painting process. I am still wondering if enough is done with the background.  Took some liberties with the photograph again.
     This photo is also from the collection of Photos from Hans Splinter on flickr, with his permission to use them. Here is a link to his page.
Posted by Picasa

5 comments:

  1. Dearest Betsy,
    I'm a new follower for your blog.I'm an Egyptian painter artist.Really i likes you artworks a lot specailly with portrait.I sued to paint portrait.It would be a great pleasure to me to visit my blog and see some of my artworks.Thanks agian.Have a nice day

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful!!!!
    I love your work.
    I follow you.
    Big hug.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is brilliant. Those colors are simply magnificent, encapsulating. You want to look and NOT look away. It's as if colors manifested themselves in such a way that they randomly created a face. The best portrait I've seen in a long time.

    If it's not too intrusive, may I ask you what brand of pastels you used for this piece?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hosnysoliman Thank you for the kind comments, I will be sure to go visit your blog.

    Alenka I'm so happy that you follow along. I really need to put more posts, the holidays here were hectic.

    Tom Wow! thank you! I wish that a had a better photo as the face does have many different colors in it that don't show up online.
    The portraits are mostly on smooth side of canson paper. I generally start with soft charcoal and nu-pastel, with big blocks of dark. Then move onto Rembrandt and finish with touches of Unison/Ludwig/Mount Vision. Trying to make sure I pull out the darkest darks and lightest lights, to give visual interest.
    Feel free to ask away! Thank you again!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you, Betsy, for your kind response. I've come back several times to this post (and will come back several times again) to study this piece, and the words you wrote that describe the process. VERY interesting.

    I'm going to have to try this approach myself.

    I simply LOVE how you drew the bonnet (is that the proper name for it?). It's saturated with light and a myriad of colors, as is the dress and the background colors! The skin tone is quite intense, as is the facial expression...I could go on and on and on...

    ReplyDelete