100 Day Project Day 33
Today I started another painting using the same reference photo that I used for the painting I finished yesterday. I’m not necessarily trying to get an exact likeness, I’m just using it as practise for seeing the values and shapes in the face.
I decided to use cheap cartridge paper. To be honest I don’t know if it’s cheap paper, because it has been sitting high on a shelf for years and years. I imagine that buying the same pack now might cost a bit more than whatever I paid for it. It’s paper I never pick up to use, tho, and I have quite a lot of it in two sizes, so it’ll be a while before I have to think about restocking it. Or maybe not if I suddenly become prolific.
I smeared a coat of gesso onto the paper to give it a bit of armour, and then sketched out the portrait with my Stabilo All, and then blasted the whole thing with my spray bottle.
This is such a great way to avoid being precious about drawing, because it’s all going to get smudgy and weird and moved around. I used a small brush to move some of the inky black juiciness around to create a base layer for the shadows. This process loosens me up and I can enjoy myself, which is what it’s supposed to be about.
Once that layer was dry I went in with a brush and paint. I used my trusty no. 4 filbert, which is one of my favourite brushes just now. I could have gone with a bigger brush, I suppose, but that was the one I picked up.
I blocked in the darks with caput mortuum acrylic, using big brush strokes, with my feet 18″ back from the easel. Next I blocked in the lights using buff titanium. I didn’t clean my brush, so as not to be precious about perfection. That also makes it easy to mix mid tones, which I blocked in last.
I don’t have a plan for where she’s going next, or if I’ll even do more to her. Maybe I’ll start a new version of her, as I’m drawn to the idea of doing a series of something just now.
Ceasefire Now,
Til the morn,
Suzanne
Materials:
Thrummie Bizzum 
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