Permission granted to laugh out loud

[Will Enns]

Hello Friends,

As I am on the steep part of the learning curve, I find it helpful to get all the critique I can.

You might well ask, what kind of a subject is this? You might even think it is a caricature. I assure you, it is not. It is the visage that greets me every morning when I look in the mirror.

I've drawn it as faithfully as possible, without photo reference of any kind. I simply grinned into the mirror, and sketched, then painted merrily away. What you see is what I saw, frightening though it may be. It's a practice piece, and not intended for framing, and is my first effort at painting entirely from life.

It has been an education to discover how a big smile seems to force the blood out of certain areas giving the skin a greenish cast, while it gets positively rosy in the cheeks. Such distinctions are impossible to make from photos.

Image:
11" x 14", watercolor on #140 Arches hot press.

Palette:

-Light skin tones-
raw sienna
yellow ochre
rose madder

-Half tones-
burnt sienna
cerulean blue

-Shadows-
winsor blue + alizarin crimson
alizarin crimson + paynes gray

-Hair -
raw umber
burnt umber
highlights-
white + yellow ochre or paynes gray

I would be interested in such general suggestions as you might be willing to offer.

Specifically, I would like to know how I might improve my choices of color.

Thanks in advance,
Will

p. s. As a matter of interest, it is very hard to relax the face after holding that grin for about 20 hours.