Final - The Little Mermaid
First Week
This is the underpainting in bluish tone of a young girl sitting on a box. She is quite petite, and at first she sat with her legs dangling. She found that uncomfortable as her legs did not touch the ground, and she adopted this lovely pose, which reminds me of the statue of the little mermaid in Copenhagen. The teacher John Wellington helped me to gently blend the shadows of the breast, fighting for the half tones. He also readjusted the features of the face to make her resemble the model more. John uses very delicate small strokes to blend, which reminds me of a sculptor chipping away at a wooden sculpture with a fine tool. My strokes are bigger, and more aggressive and are more like an axeman chopping down a tree. I will endeavor to learn his fine technique, which requires patience and subtlety.
Second Week
In the next session, observe the laying in of color. The teacher did a demo on her leg, and note the transparent glazes permitting one to see the blue undertones. He first put in the dark shadows, and then the lights and did blending. He said lighter lights tend toward yellow, and darker lights to red. My attempts at the body were a bit too opaque, I have a heavy hand I suppose. A memorable line tonight was that blending is just the brush constantly moving. Next week I will work on the background. At the end of tonite, I painted the grey box she was perched on , solidifying the pose.
Third Week
In the third painting session, I first use turpentine to wipe off excess opaque color. John helps me to redraw and correct certain areas, such as the foot , which I feel is too big. I again lay in color, this time using more medium and making an attempt to allow the underlying blues to show through. The teacher likened my handling of the paint on the foot, which is not blended but rather a mosaic of interlocking subtly different colors as reminding him of Lucien Freud. I try to keep the darks not too dark, and lightly applied, and I go heavier where the light hits, nearing opaque. I also start quickly on the background, struggling for the folds in the cloth, which is a bit off-color, defining the edges, laying transparencies of color for the wall, and finally establishing the shadows. The shadow of her face on the blue yellow wall really makes this portrait "sing".
In the final session, I used a palette knife to put in impasto highlights, I tightened the edges, lightened the shadows, and reworked some of the anatomy, as well as the hair.
