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Figure Painting

Open Session: …Work in Progress: First Figure Painting

1st Figure Painting 16 x 20 oil on MDF panel

This is my first attempt at painting the figure in oil. Model posed at open session for six hours over three sessions.

Did okay on the drawing and proportions. Getting close to the point where these primary tasks are driven by my subconscious and only the corrections get my conscious attention.  It’s a new experience. Doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does, it is magical to me.

Used the Zorn palette. Haven’t figured out skin tones and the use of red and blue as temperature colors yet, but learning. Here the yellow ochre on the thigh and the red and blue on the torso and arm need major adjustment. Will have to work in the studio as the model is in a new three week pose.

Didn’t think at all about the foreground or background and added the blue and the mauve just to get something down. When the figure is finished will put the panel aside. At some point, will use this panel to practice creating a narrative around a focal point. Might be other figures, a landscape, who knows. Need to tap into my imagination to create a story.

For now, still learning to draw and paint the human form.

Progress not perfection.