Girl with Red Leaves

Apparently this week is the last that will focus on profiles in the Let’s Face It course.  Phew.  Profiles have definitely not been easy.  A face in profile has a strong outline but getting the proportions right is something I seem to find very tricky indeed.  I do think, however, that concentrating on profiles over the last few weeks has taken my abilities a step forward and I think this week’s painting is my best profile so far.

The lesson was taken by Kara Bullock and – as with her previous lesson that led me to create Girl in Grey and Gold – the idea was to paint all the tonal values in monochrome and then add a splash of a single vivid colour.  The work of art that formed the basis of Bullock’s tutorial involved painting butterflies but I knew I would find that to be a struggle.  Painting aesthetically pleasing butterflies and flowers in acrylic is probably a stretch for me right now.  My solution, therefore, to make the colour element in the composition work was to create a diadem of red leaves.  The leaves still are not great but I am pretty confident they are better than either flowers or butterflies would have been.

This might be my last profile for this particular course but I am going to continue to practice them.  Over on my Pict Ink blog, I have embarked on a project to draw 100 ink and watercolour illustrations of faces – coincidentally also all a balance of monochrome with splashes of colour.  My objective is to build my skills with constructing a wider variety of faces and to improve my ability to draw expressive faces.

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