Underpainting

Didn't have a drawing on the canvas before putting down the first paint, so I've been struggling a little with the face as you can see from the photo of the canvas on the easel. Thinking back to a few stages before the one you see, my nephew's face wasn't turning out that bad, but I didn't want to half-ass any of this series of portraits.

Sometimes Rivero asks me about color choices, and I think it's best not to worry about it too much especially this early in the process. I looked at my palette and basically went with colors that were neglected when I painted a portrait of my niece recently. Of course, it's great to know color theory and be adept at mixing paint, but if the structure isn't there, then you get something like what we have here. I'm confident that the next pass will result in a better likeness, so I'm just enjoying painting.

I'm definitely going to do a full body of the next person--probably my other niece--to change it up. It would be nice to find a nice spot in one of our houses, so I can incorporate some furniture and and perspective elements in the next composition.

I know it's the third post today, and I'm not trying to hog the blog (sounds dirtier than it should), but some of you subscribe, so we don't want to wait too long in between posts. And yes, that's a cut water bottle sitting on the easel. I couldn't find a big plastic cup anywhere to hold some water. Have to keep those brushes clean...

-cm