I've just started a second 'Red Hat Ladies' after running into a slight problem. I had planned on doing two separate portraits as companion pieces for the original RHL (link) but discovered the leftover illustration board wasn't large enough for my purpose. I had forgotten I cut a strip from one side to use for painting trials so was left with an odd sized, square-ish piece to work with. Normally I would've gone back to the alcohol inks until I found a solution but that isn't an option at the moment. Finally a lightbulb went on in my head and I came up with this composition. This is just a photo of my drawing on tracing paper and, once again, I realize how much I would dearly love to have a lightbox, especially when working with human faces. Capturing the correct facial expressions of these lovely ladies is crucial to this piece and freehanding was challenging but I tried to keep it to a minimum. I'm really posting this so I can see it online to see if it 'works'. I invite my visitors to feel free to chime in with their opinions.
3 comments:
Hi Billie, I've been loving watching what you have been doing with the alcohol inks- haven't commented before, but have enjoyed watching. As far as what you're working on now, have you thought of reversing the two women, and putting the one with the large hat at upper left--the lifted arm of the second woman at lower right might give a diagonal line to the composition which might kind of connect them. Just an idea, don't know if it would work or not--of course you'd probably have to lose some of the lower chest frill on the one with the large hat.
I tried your suggestion, Anita. The lady with the raised arm looked so odd once I reversed her image that it did not work. Truthfully, I'd love to move her to the foreground because there's so much more detail in her image. Oh well, thank you for offering your idea. I appreciate it. :)
It was just a thought. The drawings of both ladies are so beautifully done, I admire them.
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