Girl: a three color painting (with process)

The original photo for this painting was taken by a brilliant photographer friend of mine, Melissa Howard (see original here).

The challenge with a 3 color painting is to pick a limited palette- in this case1 red shade (it has been 5 years so I don’t remember what color it was, though possibly rose madder, the same goes for the yellow, though I suspect it was an ocre), 1 yellow shade, and a blue (in this case I chose payne’s gray which is a dark blue-gray.) Then do the painting only using those colors, and usually masking fluid.

Starting sketch.

Finished under drawing.

 

First step after drawing: masking fluid application to all white areas..

 

Yellow layer.

Red layer.

Payne’s Gray layer and removal of masking fluid.

Close up of eye.

Closeup.

Close-up of mouth.

Finished.