Lauren, a demo
 

From a recent workshop I taught... Oil on linen 10"x12" (it's a New Traditions panel - Claessens C15 mounted to Gatorfoam). Sorry I didn't archive the steps. It didn't occur to me at the time.

Rob,

I wish you had.

I think this is one of the loveliest paintings, vis-a-vis skin-tone you have done, AND in front of a group!

Beautifully done!

Me, too. That would have been so interesting and informative. Well, maybe next time. It's really lovely. I love the blue shadow/reflected light, and the way her lips are right next to it. I also think the neck is very well modeled, with lots of wonderful color throughout.

Thank you, ladies. It's been too long. Too many landscapes and not enough portraits. At least I've been painting something.

Just a note about the hue shifts, for those interested: I'm still using cadmiums! I apologize to those who are disdainful of them, but I find the over-saturation necessary as I layer and/or dry scumble. If you think about it, when you strip away the skin (ouch), it's pretty saturated, no? And skin is translucent, so in order to get that look, I find it easier to mimic those layers. I just can't seem to get that from the earth palettes. Perhaps I'm not facile enough, but there you are.

Rob,

I have no objection to cadmium. Everybody manages his or her palette in the manner best suited to their work. It is the results, not the palette.

I used Daniel Greene's palette and found it too orange.

I think we all see color in a slightly different way and from different points of view, so we should adjust our palette to what best suits us.

Sharon, you're so very diplomatic! I agree with you, wholeheartedly.

I hope my tone didn't seem like I was calling anyone out on this topic, because I wasn't. I've just seen recent posts here and elsewhere that eschew the use of cadmiums over an earth palette, and I kind of felt like cads are becoming "illicit," where I still find them useful in my work as well as teaching. Of course, I feel a little hypocritical, because I ask my students to lay off the phthalo green, as I feel it's a ridiculous color. Anyway, I usually only have 6 to 9 colors in my palette for just about everything, and in the process of simplification, I've cut my ties with a lot of tubed paint colors.

Rob,

I have a book that talks about various portrait artists palettes around the turn of the century. All of these painters were top-notch and all the palettes were different.

There was the impressionists edict about not using black. Sargent wondered out loud about not being able to make form without it.

Some people use complementary color to control the chroma, I use black.

Color is emotional, the more you work with it the more you feel it. You can't reason with it.


That is why I am so glad to see that you have really used color so well in these skin-tones. Lovely.

Lovely, Rob!