Katie Part 3
Posted By Carrie L. Lewis on May 2, 2008
Okay.
I confess.
As neat as it was to draw on the canvas and have a likeness appear quickly, that method did not work for me. Or for Katie.
It has now been a couple of weeks since I last worked on Katie and the canvas (and that original portrait) did not survive very long. In fact, shortly after the last post regarding Katie, I painted over the entire canvas and put it up to dry, waiting for the next attempt.
The next attempt began today.
I brought the repainted canvas back to the studio, transferred the loose drawing I had made in the mean time to the canvas and outlined it with Burnt Umber M. Graham Oils. I did that this morning (between 6 and 6:30…it’s not easy learning to paint at that hour!), thinking that I would do more work this evening if time allowed.
But once the drawing was fixed in paint, I went ahead and roughed in a white area for the chest, then decided to paint the eyes, too. Just to give the painting some life.
Naturally, that led to blocking in some of the basic color in the head and around the eyes and by the time I put my brushes aside, I’d worked on the portrait for about 20 minutes and gotten this far.
Not too bad, considering the unorthodox (for me) painting hour!
Something I will be doing differently with this portrait is focusing on the subject, then the background. With Duncan, which was finished yesterday, I worked both subject and background at the same time and ended up losing some painting time because I couldn’t work on the subject due to wet background.
If I make a mistake and learn from it, that’s good.
If I make a mistake, then turn right around and do the same thing on the next painting, that’s bad!
I’m being good with this portrait. No telling how long that will last, though. I seem to learn better from experience than example!
I am a self-taught artist for the most part. Lots of trial and error in the past forty years! Formal art training consists of a couple of years of high school art, a painting class at a community college, one semester in the Fine Arts program at Abilene Christian University and a couple of local workshops.
I am always looking for ways to better my artistic skills, so I am a permanent student in the School of Trial and Error. I love reading and have been known to spend hours online researching materials and techniques. As a result, I've painted in several different styles, including the direct method (which goes straight for the color) and Classical methods (which involves underpaintings, layering and glazing).
I have exhibited paintings in locations such as Lone Star Park Race Track, Grand Prairie, Texas and Remington Park Race Track, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Since the early 90s, I've worked with the Michigan Harness Horseman's Association, donating custom portraits to their annual benefit auction.
In the course of maintaining a growing art business, I have taught myself web design (a skill that will no doubt prove to be a continual learning experience).
I also enjoy puttering around the yard, chasing trains with my husband, Neal, travel and, of course, looking at horses whenever they appear on my horizon.
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