A Brunette and a Redhead

8" x 6" Oil on Panel

Two more recent portrait sketches from live models. Both were painted alla prima in oil in two and a half to three hours each at the weekly portrait sessions. The first one was painted with my usual "Zorn (ish)" palette of yellow ochre, cadmium red, ivory black, and titanium white.

8" x 6" Oil on Panel

For the second painting, I did something very different, at least for me. I usually keep my oil color choices for portraits much simpler than when I work in pastel. This time the model wore a turquoise colored blouse, and I really didn't want to miss getting the color contrast between her orange hair and the blouse. So I put blue on my palette. Not only one, but two different blues. The palette for the second painting was cadmium yellow, cadmium red, sevres blue, ultramarine blue, ivory black and titanium white. Sevres blue is an unusual color for me, and I only have it in the particular pochade box I used that evening. There are other blues which also would have served the purpose, but this one worked fine. Who knows, I may become more adventurous on portrait night and start putting more colors on my palette!

For more about portrait sessions, go to "Labels" on the side bar and click on "portrait", "sketching" or "drawing".