Nude Female #3

Contemporary Art

Modern Art

Female Nude #3
Oil Painting on Canvas
by Beatriz Socorro

Please, be sure to read through the whole demo before attempting this one.

Notice that the light and shadow in this nude painting are very sharp and defined.

If you enlarge the picture you will see the areas where after filling in the whole figure with the light and shadow,  I then lightly blended some of the darker hue into the light areas to create a mid tone shade, and added some of the lighter hue to the darker areas to make very subtle highlights.

For the figure, mix:

Light area:  White + dab of Cadmium Yellow Deep

Shadow area: White + dab of Orange

Background::

Green: Thalo Green + Cadmium Yellow Pale

Lavender: Magenta + Violet + White

Blue: Prussian Blue

Once I finished the first layer for the the background, I didn´t like it. It reminded me of a flag....a streaker at the Olympics.

Now, there´s a thought worth pondering:  maybe next Olympics I should get naked and run through the field during the opening ceremonies while the athletes enter carrying their country´s flag?

Without a doubt I would make the headline news and be world famous overnight;  after which,  I could charge thousands of dollars for my paintings and people would be willing to pay for it.

Unfortunately, I can´t afford the Olympics so scratch that one.

Female Nude #3
Oil Painting on Canvas
by Beatriz Socorro

So, as you can see, I made some changes. I changed the lavender to purple and to a mixture of white and yellow.

Oh no!! Now it looks like vomit.

Female Nude #3
Oil Paintings on Canvas
by Beatriz Socorro

So, not being one who gives up easily, I waited for it to dry and  painted over it again this time with red and it still looked like a flag...just from a different country   :((

Female Nude #3
Oil Paintings on Canvas
by Beatriz Socorro

I, again,  allowed the painting to dry. 

To soften the harsh contrast between the light and shade in the figure, I made a thin glaze with Pearl paint and glazed the whole figure.

But what to do about the darned flag?

Well, what the heck...why not just let spirit completely take over?

So, with an "anything goes" attitude, I wondered what a turquoise background would look like.

Keeping in mind the thick-over-thin rule, I put some Viridian Green and some White on my palette and added linseed oil to each. 

Then, with a palette knife , I added dabs of Viridian Green all over the canvas and then proceeded to do the same with the White. Pretty much as I did with the "Rose"  background.

Please see:  Rose Demo.

But...

...this time, when it came to blending the background colors directly on the canvas, I used my fingers and my hands while I sang: "Que será...serááááá. Whatever will be...will beeeeee....."

Along the outline of the figure, I obviously used a flat brush. But for the rest of the background, I just let my fingers and my hands do as they wished.

By the way, according to some teachers blending the colors directly on the canvas is a no-no. Shows you how obedient I am. 

This was fun...kind of like being a kid and making a mess without fear of reprimands.

I liked it  :)) 

I liked the end result.

If you click to enlarge the picture, the viewer will open. If you look at each one of the photos progressively, you will notice how just by changing the color of the background, it drastically affects the color of the figure.

NOTE:  I could very well have told you a tall tale. I could have said I had purposely painted the first layer of the background in those colors so that when I painted the second layer the first layer would show through (something I sometimes purposely do).

I mean, that definitely sounds a lot better than telling you that my original background simply sucked.

But, anyhow, as they say:  "All is well that ends well".

Have fun and enjoy!!