Little Girls cont

So I worked a long time going back and forth on how to approach this but i decided just to jump in and i will learn how to draw separately.

This is what i got and posted to facebook:

girls October 7

Which i was pretty happy with but the next day I looked at it and knew Sofia was all wrong, so after much measuring and comparing I started her whole head over. It was in the wrong place and everything , also maddie's arm. I put in the correct placement for for them but i had to let it dry so in the meantime i worked on the background. once those parts are dry I will fix it up.

Girls October 8

Oil Portrait

Oil portrait-
Im trying to do something different. I was inspired to try to do a painting of my nieces. One thing lead to another and I ended up wanting to create something between a Renoir and a Sargent. Like these:

This is what I have so far:

Before I begin working on the faces i wanted to do a study or two so I could make most of my mistakes ahead of time. I started with maddie.

 

 This is a tracing of the differences between the photo and the painting. Examining them both i can see that Ive gotten a lot better at the individual parts but it is their relation to each other I have to work on. The bottom part of the face lines up pretty well with the overall shape of the head. The shape of the eyes themselves is not too bad either but the are in the wrong place. I will have to figure out how to improve that. It may even have something to do with the height of the painting on the easel. I want to be able to block things in with a bigger brush like your suppose to and not count on little tiny marks with little tiny brushes like Im used to.

PS: I am happy with the colors for the most part which were :
Burnt umber
Burnt sienna
Cad red light
Yellow ochre
touches of raw sienna and raw umber

Granny at the Circus cont...

Ok, so Ive been working pretty regularly for a couple of days cause I dont have to work and Sarah is off school and it is too damn hot to go anywhere.

So this is yesterday's:

I went back in with the tempera on several areas. I did a few local color glazes. The biggest problem I am Having is the stupid brush. I once again forgot to clean my Winsor Newton Series 7 and even though I got all the paint out, it will never be the same. It's totally splayed and I can't make a good point with it. Today I tried using the tempera brush for part of the time (Winsor Newton University from Amazon) it synthetic so its a little springier and not so soft. Its been fine for what I did today but its not a very good blender. I will have to try the blick sable, they are alot cheaper.

Here is what I did all day today:

I mostly worked on the ringmaster and the showgirl's clothes. I started to do a little in the back. I'm afraid the floor is a little too dark and I'm not sure how to lighten it. If I want it to be more subtle I think I can go over it with white and then a color and bring the whole thing up. I guess I will give it a try.