I began an oil painting this morning, and within a half hour, the island was fogged in. Not in the mood to paint fog, I broke out my fabulous "Portrait Painting in Watercolor" book by Charles Reid, Watson Guptill, 1973, inherited from my mother's library. I need a lot of practice with portraits, using watercolor wet in wet, and drawing the features of the face. So I spent the afternoon following Charles Reid's steps for painting the eye.
I began with an ink contour drawing, put fifteen of them on the page and here is the result. As you can see, I have a lot of inconsistency in value and edge control but can see some successes. Below you can see my progress from the initial drawings, and I added Charles Reid's step by step illustrations below. Very interesting exercise!
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| Fifteen Contour Drawings |
This is my two hundred ninety-third daily drawing. I tried Charles Reid's steps for painting mouths back at Drawing 229 and certainly need more practice. I am enjoying the exercise!!
Thank you for your continued attention and interest.
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| Add a wash over each |
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| After the first six |
Here are Charles Reid's steps. I added a note to myself after the third.
I dug out this great book, "Portrait Painting in Watercolor" by Charles Reid from 1973. It is packed with information, with some step by step instructions for painting individual facial features. Today I tried painting a few mouths, using Reid's explanation. Some are successful; some look like plucked turkeys, and the entire page resembles an Escher if glimpsed quickly. It's a bit odd to see the disembodied lips, but I like and need the brush practice. Will continue and see where it goes. If you can pick up the book somewhere, I highly recommend.
This is my two hundred twenty-ninth daily drawing. Thanks for taking a look.
The Black Duck is one of two coffee shops on Monhegan Island. Both have their own personalities. Both are great places to hang out and draw, to meet a friend, or to accomplish my favorite Monhegan past time... just being present. These two women were hanging out one morning.
The September challenge for Girls Just Wanna Paint was "paint like a famous artist"... I've adapted that in my own head to "spend some time studying a famous artist and think about what you can learn". I admire Charles Reid's work. It looks so spontaneous, but is so intentional. Spontaneity and intentionality are not opposite ends of a spectrum, they are just tough to achieve simultaneously, for me. I concentrated on backlit heads, and wet into wet, lost edges. Long way to go, but I like this effort.
Thanks for looking.
The Girls Just Wanna Paint theme for March is "favorite things". Difficult topic to pin down, so many choices, inside, outside, family, places, etc. Eventually, I decided on my studio, which is a place I love. It's a small room in our home, but has its own entrance, and great afternoon light. We live in an old home, lots of windows, few closets. I have learned over the years to add nooks, crannies, shelves into many unused small spaces in our home, same for the studio. My studio is packed with many of my favorite things, including these props up on a high shelf. The painting isn't complete, but I like the design. Left to right... my Charles Reid painting flowers book, a small ceramic planter with a cherub pulling a cart (no need to ask why, it's so tchotchke and so lovely), one of a vintage pair of mache reading babies as bookends (see comment above), a great green vase, small red chair, Chinese replica mud figure, Dad's FBI bowling trophy from the 1950s, big blue vase, two small ceramic angels, and an ironstone cream pitcher... I have some work yet to do... but these are some of my favorite things.
See the rest of the Girl's work here, and as always, thanks for looking.
Here are Charles Reid's steps. I added a note to myself after the third. 
