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9th Annual Art-a-Day Challenge, January 2018!

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Portrait of Delia, and Hanford Cloudscape by Laura Gable

"Delia" oil painting sketch on 8x10 canvas, ©Laura Gable

"Clouds Above Hanford" 8x6 oil painting on oil paper, ©Laura Gable
Working on the daily paintings allows you to paint all manner of things. My artist friend Delia popped by the studio yesterday, so she sat for a quick portrait sketch. The light from the window shifted quickly, so we wrapped it up after about 1.5 hours, but it was fun to capture the nuances of color on the beautiful high cheekboned planes of her face. She did a lot of chatting, as she filled me in on her life, so I'm not quite sure that I got the smile on her lips to move to her eyes. Oh and as John Singer Sargent said, "There's something about that nose that's not quite right." (Or did he say it the mouth??) Yah I do like portraits and will give it another go soon.

The other painting is a small one I did on a piece of Arches Oil Paper, which I mounted to gatorboard.  It's from a photo I took up around the Hanford site near the Ringold entrance... a great spot to go do some storm watching. Working with the paper is interesting. It has a soft vellum texture and holds up to oil paint and washes surprisingly well. According to a few "how to" sites, it's best to put a thinned wash of oil paint down first which seems to keep the heavier strokes of color from absorbing totally into the paper. I've got a few spare pieces sitting about, so let me know if you want to practice on it. ;-)

Happy creating!!

2 comments:

Bobi Wilson said...

Delia! Fun to have a vicarious visit with you. Besides cheekbones the women simply does not age. Nice likeness.

Terrie said...

It's a lovely portrait and I like the way you handled the shadows. Love the landscape study - wonderful colors and impressions. I'm inspired to expand beyond my architectural attempts.