Baby Girl
Posted by Judy Moore Mudd | Filed under People
Name: Baby Girl
Medium: Watercolor on Arches 140# paper
Size: 5×7″
This is a small study of ”Lauren” from a photograph taken last Fall by her father, Jason. Gina and Jason Morrison are my cousins in Atlanta and Jason is my very creative web and blog designer. A link to his website, Creation Cafe, is located in my Blogroll on the right.
My painting process: After a quick sketch, I started with the background, wanting to give the effect of a glowing backlight. I wet the paper all the way down to and surrounding Lauren. I then laid in a very strong yellow (New Gamboge) making sure it was strongest just to the right of Lauren’s head and along the fence line. After this dried, I mixed a dark with Thalo Blue and Alizarin Crimson, leaning more toward blue. I used this dark for the background fence, trees and house–varying the values and color shades and strengths to show slight differences between the objects. I lifted lighter areas within the darks, such as the roof line and the fence lines. I highlighted the evergreen edge with some yellow to give it a backlit appearance.
Painting Lauren, I began with her face, laying in an initial flesh toned mixture, but varying the colors throughout the face-cheeks pinker, forehead warmer, shadowed areas under her hood bluer, etc. After this layer dried, I went in and strengthen the areas that needed to be stronger–her cheeks, mouth, inside her ear, neck–all the while keeping things pretty soft since her baby face is soft and rounded. I moved to her eyes, trying not to define too much, leaving white hightlights and layering the irises to give depth. Her eyebrows were just wisps of color, barely visible.
Lauren’s jacket was painted with Thalo Blue, Cerulean, Cobalt Blue, and Perm. Rose, leaving hightlights on the upper edges for backlighting and darkening where needed under her hood and in the folds. I finished her hand using the same colors as her face and just used a dark to indicate the leaf she was holding.
SOLD! Collection Jason and Gina Morrison, Atlanta
