Month December 2022

Contemporary Portrait-Indian Girl

mayhewjnm 2 Comments
12 x 16 ins, oil on canvas panel

So much fun! This portrait is based on a photo from Unsplash, but adapted according to my memories of our 4 month stay in India in 2014. One overwhelming impression there was the riot of color—in clothing, outside temples, in decorations. It was a beautiful feast of color!

Here’s a gallery of some steps in the process:

Dancing with the colors—a freehand placing of connected colors.
Adding the motif by oil transfer.
Negative blocking—rubbing out the lightest areas with a paper towel.
Blocking in the major values and colors.
Adding some momentum—brushing, scraping, swiping and swooshing!
Restoring the image with more layers of color and refinement.