Two new pieces

Today was very productive in the studio even though I wasted a lot of time too.  Sometimes I just can't help that.  I got up early this morning and took my car to the mechanics then walked home from there by 7:45.  Very unusual behavior for me to be up and at 'em so early!  I came home and went straight to the studio where I began working on a piece I had gridded the other day.  I'm calling it "Just thinkin'".  In reality there is almost no distinction between her back and the background.  It's a bit more distinct in this picture than in the actually drawing.  I enjoyed creating this piece because of the brilliant oranges and the absolute white - which of course has lots of colors in it actually.  It was also fun to draw her hair which has 15-20 different colors in it.  I loe doing hair!  It's my most fun thing to draw.  The trick is to put every color into it that is in the painting already.  It adds wonderful complexity and interest and depth to it and helps it capture the highlights and light hitting it really well.  I do the same thing with pubic hair.  There are always tons of colors in it as well.

The other picture I worked on today is called Tummy Tuck II.  It's of the same woman as I drew earlier, but this time she's standing up.  The first picture is the preliminary sketch.  A few people saw it and suggested I leave it as it because they liked the feel of the skin.  I decided to go back into it and refine it though because I felt I could retain the feel of the skin but make the picture more interesting overall.  Here's the final.  I think I made the right choice to go back into it.  I love the depth of the scar and the belly button (which is actually also a scar on the mend.  With a tummy tuck operation, they create a new belly button to replace the old one which gets removed.) 

I seem to be drawing a lot of scars lately.  Several years ago, I did an entire series entitled Scar Series which was made up for large scale pastel drawings of people's scars.  I have written about them on this blog before, so if you're interested in learning more, you can check it out.  I don't think I'm fascinated by scars again, in particular, but I do seem to suddenly have models with some impressive ones!  They've fun to draw/paint because of the dimensionality of them and the irregularities.  They bring me a whole new challenge.  What I also really like, but which I haven't talked about so much here, is the stories that go with each scar.  Of course each of these women has a wonderful, rich, compelling story to go with her scar.  Hopefully the models will write up their stories one day and I can include them here.  I would love that!