Portrait of Adrienne in Pastel

For my painting base I primed acid free mat board with Colorfix Pastel Primer in Soft Umber.

Beginning with the general outline of Adrienne's face I roughed in shadows and contours with a dark no. 7 Burnt Sienna Rembrandt pastel, a mid-toned primary blue and a medium valued yellow green. My goal here was just to establish some color and get the features down in somewhat the right place, although I did see a lot of green in the photo and knew I would have to incorporate that color into my painting to make it believable.

Next I added some medium red-violet tones to offset the yellow green. I decided this painting would be about the cool yellow green lights battling the redder-purple tones in her skin and outfit. Knowing what I wanted to emphasize gave me a "color" direction to take the painting in. I deepened the darks and added more detail, trying to get a feel for the form of her face.

I wanted to keep the shadow areas a cool red and the light areas a light green, but what to do with the areas of halftone in between? Adrienne's skin is very pale and quite pink in places so I used medium shades of English Oxide Red and Yellow Ochre to paint in the base skin tones. Don't forget to use blue in places that recede slightly or are in shadow. Most of the colors will be painted over but a hint of them will remain and they will make your skin tones that much more interesting. I like to work back to front so I roughed in the background at this point, using colors I had already used in the skin. Then I blended the background with my finger.

She is looking like she is crying! So here I worked on her mouth some more and started going over the base colors with lighter ones in the areas of her skin that were in light. The mouth line is really important to get right. I defined her eyes and made her ear more human looking. Now she is looking a bit better. I am saving my very light pastel shades for the end of the painting. Here I am working more on the composition and likeness than I did earlier. Luckily, the pastel primer will allow almost limitless reworking.

Adrienne is improving with the application of lighter lights and darker darks. Here I am emphasizing the delicate tint on her cheekbones.

She is looking a bit too green though so I lightly stroke light valued oranges and golds across her face. Then I adjust her hair so it falls around her face and curves inward. More attractive than the photos I am using, but that is why we have artistic license. It's never a good idea to use a photo that is too clear- you are more likely to copy it faithfully and lose whatever creative edge of your own that you bring to the painting. After four hours of painting time I am ready to sign "Adrienne" and send her to the framer.

Here is a detail from her face.

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