Sitting Pose

This is a work in progress of Ashley in a sitting pose. The piece is a 30" x 40" oil on canvas. I prefer close cropped compositions as they bring the viewer in and allow a shared intamacy with the image. The set was lit with full spectrum daylight bulbs on one side and an incandecent lamp on the other. This brings forth an ample range of cool and warm tones on Ashley's skin and creates an interesting tension between inside/outside. I have employed the dead palette which limits the pigments to Yellow Ochre, Transparent Yellow Lake, Raw Sienna, Raw Umber, Mars Violet Deep, English Red, Alizarin Crimson, Titanium White, Mars Black & Blue Black.

Various Studies

In order to best determine how to approach an image, artists typically make several sketches and studies and then proceed to work with a choice of medium for the final piece. With this particular composition, I chose a pose with classical precedent and tried multiple studies from various angles in different media. The top most is an ala prima oil study on canvas board, the middle a vine charcoal on paper and the last a silver point. I was dissastisfied with all three, and decided to scrap a final piece, but the excersise gave me insight which will help with this pose in the future.