Let's play with color!

An oil painting I began recently. A lot of opposites are happening in this painting. Cool colors and lighting of the sky against the warm colors of the woman's face created by the candle. Is the windy exterior blowing out the candle or is the woman?

So far, this painting has one and a half coats of oil paint. After the first layer of paint has been blocked in and dried, I render the background as well as possible before I begin the second coat of paint onto the figure. Typical painting takes up to three and a half coats of paint to achieve the quality I desire.

The intitial sketch for the painting above.

An experiment in acrylic

Occasionally, I like to make a mess and try to incorporate a figure within the mess. Sometimes it works.

I started out with layering washes of acrylic trying to achieve unique brush strokes similar to illustrator, Sam Weber. It didn't happen. But, the portrait turned out OK. It was an experiment.