margaret

Arches CP 300 gsm, 14" x 10". 3 hours.

one of the life sketches of margaret. the original was done in pencil; this was cut with charcoal using a photo reference of the pose, the charcoal was fixed by wetting with a faucet stream and setting to dry in the sun. then contrasting colors were dropped in.

i am still puzzling over her eyes. i tried for a color here that is not brown, not red, not orange, but something on the boundary of all of them. i tried painting the whites pale blue, but this didn't help.

the green/violet color base was suggested by her shirt. she likes to wear green i think.

the lips might be overdone. i wanted to simplify everything except the eyes, reducing the whole face to a pattern or icon.