in thought

9x12" oil painting on the back of a sketchbook cover. ; )

Today's Two-Colour Portrait was done with Light Magenta and Burnt Umber. I chose a warm and cool colour, thinking the pink was the warm, (since it's in the red category) only to quickly realize the brown is the warmer of the two. #doh I mean, burnt umber is orange right...?! 

I gessoed the board with a white and black gesso mix in order to see my values. 

Next is another picture of the whole piece, (on a black background so you can see it) I love the perforations and I let the orange and yellow, from the original board, show up. (I sanded the gesso off the edges to bring that colour back). I added a little brush mark of my original palette, the two-colours... and white of course, to the bottom right hand corner. ; )

Here's my preliminary sketch in charcoal, also 9x12".

  

And here's my palette. I don't usually mix colours first, but for these two-colour portraits I do, so that I can really get a handle on the three values I'm using.

I take a black and white pic of my palette, before I start painting, to see if the values are right. See how the light values match each other, and the mid values match each other, as well as the grey paper palette I use. 

By the end of it, my three value painting is really five values. I bring in a few mid-lights and mid-darks. I try to keep it to three, since three value paintings are nice and clean, and easy to 'read' from across the room. But sometimes, for portrait structure, a few more values are necessary.

Thank you for stopping by! I appreciate your time. Take care ya'll. : )