by Lisa Larrabee
Harvest
artist Lisa Larrabee
20" x 24" Oil
There are many different ways to begin a painting. One technique that I particularly enjoy involves "drawing in paint". When I begin a portrait in this way, there is little to no preliminary drawing. I begin my sketching of the features in paint. I avoid creating too much contrast (lightest lights and darkest shadows) because it is much more forgiving when moving the paint around to make corrections. This push and pull of shapes and shadows actually feels more to me like sculpting the features then drawing them.