Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of March 26, 2024)

Here is the portrait of Celina as it looked on March 26th.  On that day and the day before, I concentrated mainly on the face.  On the canvas, the face is maybe 2 inches across and to 3 inches long, if that, and is half that size in the photo.  Even using the smallest brush I have, It is easy to make a mistake.  So I spent much of my painting time on the 25th and 26th making mistakes and then correcting them, but I reckon that is probably 90 percent of making art in general.  But I am getting closer to a likeness.  I am also making corrections to the figure as I see mistakes.  And I also worked on the background, creating what is to be a field of roses, planted in three rows behind the figure. I adjusted the composition to make sure Celina will have a place to stand. To be continued. . . .

Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of March 23, 2024)

Here is the portrait I have been working on, as it looked on March 23, 2024.  I continued making small changes to the face and figure.  Meanwhile, I also continued working on the background, which is going to be rows of flowers in a field.  I am working with the spacing of all those diagonal lines, to get the perspective right.  To be continued. . . .

Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of March 20, 2024)

Here is my portrait-in-progress as it looked on March 20th.  I made a few small changes to the face and figure.  I spent most of my time beginning to block in the background. To be continued. . .

Flowers for Celina (Closeup of Portrait as of March 19, 2024)

Here is a closeup of my portrait of Celina, as it looked on March 19, 2024.  That day I think I repainted the face at least five times, but I was learning more each time. Getting closer, but not there yet. I didn't make any changes to the figure or the background, so I am just posting the closeup.

Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of March 16, 2024)

Here is the portrait I am working on as it looked on March 16, 2024.  On that day, I made some changes to the face, based on the reference photo. I think the face is getting slowly getting closer to likeness.  I also made adjustments to the position of the body and the posture. To be continued.

Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of March 15, 2024)

Here is my current portrait project as it looked on March 15th.  At this point, almost all my effort was going into working on the face, studying my reference photo and trying to get a likeness.  I felt like I was getting closer. . .but not there yet. . . . 

Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of March 14, 2024)

Here is the portrait I am working on as it looked on March 14th.  At this point, I was concentrating on the face.  I used my reference photo as a guide.  For the face, I am working on a very small area with a small brush, and only brown and white paint.  At this point, I felt that I was still "learning" Celina's face.  (Of course I do know Celina's face, but did not know her as a young woman.) Anyway, I began to feel that I was coming closer to the features that I saw in the reference photo, but was not quite there yet.  To be continued. . . .

Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of March 13, 2024)

Here is the portrait as it looked on March 13.  I used the revised lines (marked the previous day with red conte) to make changes to the canvas.  I introduced a bit of green just so I could keep track of the changes.  Although I worked a little on the face, at this point, I was concentrating on the position of the body, trying to show the slight turn to one side. To be continued. . . 

Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of March 12, 2024)

Here's the portrait I am working on as it looked on March 12.  At that point, I was still working on the position of the figure, showning a slight turn to the side.  I did more measuring than painting, but you can see the newly corrected lines marked with red conte crayon.

Flowers for Celina (Closeup of Face) as of Mar. 11, 2024

Here is a closeup of the portrait I am working on, as of March 11, 2024.  Because I had to change the position of the body, I consequently had to repaint the face..  It's a little better, but not there yet.  But each time I re-paint the face, I am learning.

Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of Mar. 11, 2024)

Here is the portrait I am working on, as it looked yesterday.  I went over the body position, measuring the photo and then measuring the image on the canvas.  I made a lot of changes, the most noticeable to the position of her left arm.  I marked the changes with red conte crayon, just so I could see them. Then I used brown and white paint to make the changes more visible.  The red from the conte added a little color. I also measured the face (photo and canvas) and spent some time trying to get a likeness.  I am closer, but not there yet.  But that's okay.  I need to get the figure right first.  To be continued. . . .

Flowers for Celina (Closeup of face) as of March 10, 2024

Yesterday I posted a photo of this portrait in progress, and today I am posting a closeup, taken at the same time.  Yesterday I was concentrating on the figure and realized that the position of the head was wrong.  I managed to fix that, but had to repaint the face. In  the process, I felt I was losing ground with the likeness, but it is much better to make changes in position now.  To be continued. . . .

Flowers for Celina (Portrait as of Mar. 10, 2024)

I worked on this portrait today.  I started by working on the face, using my reference photo.  Then I did some work on the figure, but noticed that the position of the head needed to be adjusted. There was too much tilt.  That meant making some more revisions to the figure and also reworking the face. So even though I feel like a lost a little ground on the face, the head position is better. And it is important to make that correction now, rather than discover the mistake later.  To be continued. . . .

Flowers for Celina (Closeup of face), Painting as of March 4, 2024

I was short on time today, but worked on this portrait anyway.  Using my reference photo, I began to block in the face.  I painted over my sketch on the canvas, using white and brown.  My goal wa just to block in the major areas of light and shadow.   There's a long way to go, but it is good to start painting.

Flowers for Celina (Sketch on canvas as of February 29, 2024)

I worked on this portrait yesterday.  I am still just sketching on the canvas.  Using my reference photo, I refined my sketch with conte crayon (using a different color so I could keep track of what I changed).  I made some adjustments to the figure and to the position of the head and neck. Because the face is so small, I switched to colored pencil to sketch in the features.  I also used conte crayon to block in the background composition.  (The face is beginning to look familiar. . .)