New painting! This one is a commissioned piece. Its a portrait done from an old photograph. I restored the colors and worked in washes at first to build up an underpainting, and then went in with my final colors and strokes. The face took me a very long time to get right because my reference was very small and the face in the painting was only about a square inch in size. Every little mark changes the whole look of the face at that size, so I had to work very carefully. Elements in the background though, like the cars and buildings, gave me a place to be a little more loose.
I like working in Acrylics because they dry so quickly, that it is fast and easy to make revisions without accidentally smudging around other parts of the work. Sure, working fast is essential with acrylics, and retarders tend to thin out the color a little bit, but I like working in that way. I like to get it done right the first time, if at all possible. I also like how acrylics are odorless and because they dry quickly, much less messy to work with in my bedroom. I can’t imagine trying to use oils in the space that I have to work in over the summer. Yuck.
