Painting In Progress

by Lisa Larrabee

I created studies of my son in preparation for this figurative landscape painting.  I also painted Spring Light to work out colors for the landscape.  My intention is to use the tree to portray the incredible intellectual, spiritual and physical growth of a young child.

Pear Study

by Lisa Larrabee

This painting was done as a relatively quick study as a teaching demonstration.  The focus was on shape and shadow relationships.

You can see that this study began with a horizontal composition.  My painting surface is a sheet of paper canvas which is convenient for quick studies.  The surface was toned with a mix of Gamblin's Transparent Earth Red and and Phthalo Blue thinned with Gamsol (OMS).  The purpose of the blue was to neutralize the orange tones in the Earth Red.  I chose Phthalo simply because it is transparent as well.  

Painting a Child Portrait

by Lisa Larrabee

It is a unique experience to paint the portrait of a child verses an adult.  The proportions are a bit different, and the edges all seem softer.  Even with this in mind, I had to take careful measurements and correct the placement of features and key shapes.  I started this painting demo with a thinned wash of Gamblin transparent earth red and torrit grey.  I have previously started this process without neutralizing the wash with grey.  I found that it was more difficult to block in with accurate color over such a warm base, so I added the grey.  Blue would have worked just as well to neutralize the orange tones. The image below shows how far I got in part one of my painting demo.