I like how I paint, but I haven't painted a lot, so I have a lot to learn. Especially I want to paint shadows better.
I ran the watercolor portrait of Peal Duquette under the tap twice yesterday, so I could repaint the shadows on her face. But this makes the paper rough, and the stain of paint remains, so it's now harder to paint... NOT a good working solution at all.
I was pretty pleased anyway. I thought, this looks sorta like one of Alice Neel's portraits. Neel mostly painted portraits. She said she was a collector of souls (NYT article).
She outlines her people, which I love. (Larry Rivers is another painter I like who does that.) My outlines are drawn in fat pencil.
I thought looking at Neel's shadowing might be helpful.
Is it ever!
Look. Her son "Hartley with a Cat" (via "Alice Neel: My Family and Other Animals"):
I cut this in half so I (you) can enlarge the painted shadows to see more closely. Irene Peslikis, "Marxist Girl, 1972 "
This portrait of Charlotte Willard is at The Walker, closed for Covid--(also originally one piece, not three):
I'd like to paint all the dolls (24, I think?), to get a whole gallery--maybe a calendar's worth in future years.
Ostensibly they look the same, but I want to catch their differences--different moods from different angles, different lighting, etc.
Things help carry the story.
I didn't even realize I was doing this:
the white-in-red gap in Pearl's dress (right hand side) suggests the shark biting her arm:
