On Friday I painted with the Portrait Group. Started with an oily wash, Burnt Sienna and Ultramarine, trusty mixture yielding dark greys and browns. Warm/cool polarity. All went well at first. Great model, Fabyenne, but I stood in imperfect light, accepted a too-frontal position. Standing, I was looking down on the model who was seated. Not to mention, I'd prefer to be a bit closer in order to sight-size my composition. So be it.
I got stuck on the arm. Usually I paint them too short, then elongate. This time it was too long at first, so I shortened it. Then I fooled with the hand and wrist. I spent too much time and paint on the face. I painted through the breaks and during the last two twenty minute sessions desperately tried to salvage the painting, eventually painting myself into a corner.
After putting away my easel, I left the panel for another day. It had, if nothing else, been an exercise in focus.
Next day, I saw how yellow I'd made the face, how disconnected and clumsy the arm and hand, so scraped and wiped away paint on the upper torso and head along with some of the background.
So it goes, forward and backward. I'm left with an interesting abstraction. Maybe the start of a different painting.
