So I had another go at Amy, this time without a head. I started from…
Amy Winehouse
I heard some of the late Amy Winehouse’s music the other day. I’m guessing it must have been a question on either Only Connect or University Challenge as I don’t listen to the radio or watch much TV. But it was hearing this music that made me add her to my waiting list of portrait subjects.
I wanted to paint Amy in three layers and the last layer definitely needed to look black, so that narrowed down the possibilities. I saw that my first colour would be covering a lot of the painting in its own so picked my red colour scheme as its first colour felt like the best option out of all the first colours on the shortlist. So the colours were rose dore in the first layer, Winsor red in the second and French ultramarine in the third. As you’ll hear below, hematite violet genuine and white gouache also ended up making appearances.
As usual I put down a pencil outline using a grid, then reserved the whites with masking fluid and put on the three layers, waiting for everything to dry between layers. I had three photos that I put through the Art Assist app, one with a 6*8 grid, one with a 3*4 grid and one with no grid. It was only when I was partway through the painting that I realised that the value plans for the three paintings were different and that I’d been mixing them up. From that point onwards I tried to work smarter, picking out the best elements from the three different plans while searching for a likeness. When I saw that one of the plans included highlights in the eyes I added these with white gouache.
To make the final layer interesting, I added a layer of hematite violet on top of the French ultramarine before it dried, then charged in some dryish random spots of French ultramarine and hematite violet and sprinkled on some salt. It’s made that layer less uniform than it might have been otherwise and resulted in an interesting light bit in Amy’s hair above her left eye. And I do want to use up all the hematite violet in my palette as I have a tube of potters’ pink ready to replace it as my oddball granulating mixer colour.
For finishing touches I spattered on some Winsor red and French ultramarine in the background and tried to get a better likeness by using French ultramarine to make some of the third layer shapes bigger in places. And that was me done.
As for the final painting, it’s definitely Amy, although the likeness is more evident from a distance than it is close up. There may be a bit of vulnerability in there that I’ve captured too. And the black colour resulting from the three layers and the introduction of hematite violet and salt to the final layer is just right. Amy’s up for sale.
And if I might be permitted a bit of shockjocking, I don’t think anyone can call themselves an artist if they’ve never painted Amy Winehouse. I’m just glad I meet that criterion now.
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