Creating a painting with Anna

I was very fortunate that a friend was working in the area.
They were very kind to participate in a new work.

I had done many sketches quickly on Anna's first visit through.
Technically I am very interested in transparencies, lace, and other very difficult concepts in oil painting.
Some of these ideas may not fit a model or represent them correctly.

The sketch was designed to compliment other works presently available. I am working at several paintings at once. Because each painting may need a full day to dry and use a particular palette, over the years it's just the way things developed.
This process can be frustrating as it seems nothings gets finished or will ever finish.
However, suddenly they seemingly finish all at once.

Here is the sketch I made that both represented the model appropriately and complimented the other works that may accompany it.

Anna did pose. I think this was her first time modeling and I don't think she was comfortable.
I think it is important to include this photo because it is so informative of what I was trying to achieve.
Thankfully she didn't have to hold this pose very long.

This next photo shows early construction of the head.
One of the things I am contending with is making sure the head or figure is not flat.
The other thing I am contending with here is the fact that I didn't prep the figure pose.
With my last work, my friend was around for a few days.
I had to start like this.

With this work I had to put it all in at once.
You will see many, many artists make essentially a coloring book.
This is where in either pencil or sometimes under-paint they will draw a figure.
Then they paint into the drawing.
Here is an example of that style of work:

Overtime, i felt to achieve a finish it was so much additional layers of the same thing.
Separately the cost. I am using layer after layer of premium pigment it was a waste.

As a painter you may get tubes of strange pigments.
I remember this Indian Red color.. after years of painting I began to create under layers of strange pigments to build a base to work off of.

As far as the time lapse videos this was the last one. My equipment broke down and I stopped documenting the paintings this way. Soon I hope to make these videos again.

I continued through the painting and of course Anna was nervous.
I genuinely did not need to make the work look this pretty.
I call it beauty passes. It helps the model feel better but the information I need can be muddy.
It is very helpful when the model is comfortable.
After hundreds of models, and sometimes a cue lined up at larger events my favorite expression is:
"No rush, please take your time."

Thankfully she was happy. She also chose this photo.

The rest of these photos are the layering process over several days.

Again, as I am working on a few paintings at once this is slow.

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This is the final shot for this post.
I am trying to include the entire cue that gets work done on it during the day/

In this photo there is an upside down painting on the couch behind. "Anna". I will reveal this painting soon. It is nearly completed. Today I worked on the blond hair extensively. It needs to dry. Yellows and other cadmium colors take longer to dry. When that work was done the other color went to "Anna".

Thank you very much,

Patrick J. Moran