There is a feel one gets from the oil paint leaving the brush when putting just the right stroke of color on that white canvas. Like a bit of sweet chocolate melting on the tongue. You can taste the finished painting with that first touch of color. Your palette smiles at you as you mix those dreamy colors that call to you. That mixture of grey and those subtle greens for the background wait for you. The model's skin calls for paint with reasonable mixtures. The rest of the canvas though, lures like chocolate, and its purple I reach for.
A mixture of what I see, with what I feel, covers my glass palette with its greenish grey undertone. Remembering a scene from the past, a silhouette plays in my mind, plays with colors I want to see. I remember the figure and how she was surrounded by the pastel spring hues. Now, two young kids are looking through a book in my studio.. Quieting their colors for the silhouette feel while still trying to carry the idea of carefree children, challenges my thought process.
The small color study poses more pauses of thoughts. No such thing as a quick study for me, as I figure out how to get to where I want to be with this painting. My two young models grow in patience. The computer on the floor with Netflix keeps them settled for a while. The background and surroundings are for when they can no longer sit still, and leave.
This is how I work sometimes. I work from photos, too, but enjoy all the problems that come with live models. I learn so much more when a model is here. Colors are clear working from life, and change every so slightly as the breeze dances through the leaves of the tree outside my west window.
