This week I managed to complete another technical pen drawing for the Women's Celebration Series. It had been eluding me for several months, but at last I think I'm satisfied. I puttered and puttered over the details in an underlying pencil drawing. It is of my friend Rosemary, who, when I was doing the photo shoot, remarked "I hope I'm really hard to do...". Why is it I have problem ignoring that kind of light-hearted, playful remark????
My daughter's friend from Vancouver has been visiting her and staying with her this week. I am staying with my ex-brother-in-law. The other day he went up into his attic and hauled down some of my ex-husband's things and we sorted through some things, leaving anything my daughter might want to keep for her to go through. Such a difficult time for her right now. It's wonderful she has supportive friends.
I've also been crocheting; something I haven't done in years. It is a nice compliment to artwork. Still very productive, but somewhat creative as well.
I will start today on another pencil drawing of one of my women friends. Watched a good video high-speed demo of someone using classical techniques in oil to do a self-portrait. She had used a blue underpainting, which I also do when doing my women's portraits (but in acrylic). Sometimes you can use a green, if the tones of the skin call for it. This is what the old masters used, right back to DaVinci's time. What it does is shine through the surface flesh tones, rendering the face more three-dimensional and giving a type of lumosity to the skin.
Do you happen to do portraiture? Have you used this technique? Would love to hear your comments.