The transformation process of "She's A Beauty" commission and bringing a boudior photo to life in an oil painting.
I chose a photo out of the many to choose from that best exhibited the full beauty she exudes. She's open, confident, sexy and she knows it. After sketching the photo from grid lines onto the canvas, you go over the graphite lines with watercolor and then erase the graphite. I learned during this process that I should have used a burnt umber watercolor rather than ultramarine blue for skin. It's much easier to go over brown with oil paints than blue when doing a portrait for light colored skin.
As you will see, the photo (copied onto paper) is in black and white. I wanted it in color so I used another photo which was similar in nature and used it to match the colors onto the painting. The skin foundation was a new experiment for me as this was my first oil portraiture in this light of skin tone (my first color oil portrait painting was "The Warrior) but I had a great mentor at the time guiding me throughout the process. The mixture of colors used were yellow ochre, cadmium red, viridian green, ultramarine blue and titanium white. Many layers were used for highlighting, shading, tan lines and various skin tones.
As the painting propelled, I got fixated on the hand and nails and seeing it come to life was exhilarating. Then came the hair. Hair, like skin, has many color layers to it. I established a burnt umber color first and added deep shades to it using ultramarine blue and a hint of crimson. The highlighting was done in streaks with a mixture of yellow ochre, white and burnt sienna to give a touch of caramel tones as portrayed in her color image.
While the hair layer was drying (days) and before I added the hair highlights, I worked on the black lingerie and make up. All that was left were the sheets and the tattoo. I eliminated the left foot on top of the sheet and made it under the sheet. It looked better that way. I finalized the touchups and then signed it. After a good week or two of drying, I gave the painting a varnish with Turpenoid and Damar (1 part Damar - a cap full - to two parts Turpenoid) with a sponge brush over it for protection. And she was finished! This inspired many ideas of mine that are currently in the making.