Saturday, February 20, 2021

Color Studies

 

I've been a little distracted with things like my second COVID vaccine (flu symptoms for about 12 hours, no big deal) but today I got to the easel and back to my 2021 focus on color. Working two-up, I started with Burnt Sienna acrylic to lay in the value pattern using a b/w photo reference.

After the acrylic dried (about a minute!) I could start working in oil paint using color photos as reference. Hue. Value. Temperature. I really meant to stop and take more progress shots but once I started painting I forgot about it. The painting on the left is about 80% complete. I'll try to take more photos of the process when I move on to the second painting. Eventually these little color studies may end up in my new Facebook Shop under the business name, Bina Designs, that I've had since 1988.

Saturday, February 6, 2021

A self-portrait

Sixty years ago I painted a self-portrait in oil paint in my high school art class. It was so traumatic that I didn't touch oil paint again for nearly fifty years, instead reverting to pencil and pen and ink. This week I tried it again and it was so much fun!  I made a few short videos. Scroll to the bottom to see the finished painting and the reference selfie it was painted from. I may add my glasses after it is dry. 

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3 Note the vertical palette.

Self-Portrait oil sketch ©2021 Barbara Benedetti Newton



Several years ago I made quite a few pastel videos. 
If you would like to see them, visit my YouTube Playlist