Rhymes with Ian
20 x 16
This is the piece that I did in the 3 hour demo on Friday. I confess to tweaking the background and adjusting a few edges when I got it home, but I was happy with the level of completion that I managed to get. Also nice was the fact that I got some really luscious paint on the canvas. My goal was to demonstrate wet-in-wet layering, something that requires that you put ever-thicker layers on top of each other and which can certainly get out of control if you're not on your toes.
The audience was knowledgeable and had some great questions about the process and materials and I think seeing the full portrait evolve was really helpful for the workshop the next day. It was nice for the students to have the full 6 hours to paint and I enjoyed the low-key start to the day. All that I had to do was remind the group about the way to start and stop them for short tutorials throughout the day. It was a far cry from the usual frenetic pace.
The title: my model's name is Rhean. She told me to pronounce it as "rhymes with Ian" and I couldn't get that out of my head for the rest of the workshop. She was an excellent, patient model and was the inspiration for some very good pieces on Saturday.
