Studies

Today’s open studio was very nice, and our model was superb; expressive, steady and very subtle in her poses. This three hour session was mostly focused on drawing, so we did lots of five-minute poses (as are the ones above), and gradually moved up in time. I was able to get a modest color study done in our last two 20-minute sessions (right top), when she held the same pose for both. I tried an exercise from Virgil Elliott’s Traditional Oil Painting and used a very limited palette (right bottom): Ivory Black, Red Ochre, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. I was pretty impressed with the range of purple and greenish tones you can get without blue on the palette!

I’ll continue with this palette for some time to come. With only forty total minutes messing about with it, I didn’t even scratch the surface.