Anastasia

June’s started slowly, just like every month. And, as is usual when I’m a little short of match practice, I’m coming back with a figure painting. It’s no accident that these paintings tend to arrive near the start of the month.

I decided to go for fineliners and Artgraf paints on hard pressed (i.e. smooth) watercolour paper rather than using inktense pencils. I picked out Anastasia as today’s model and was shocked to find that I’d not painted her before today.

After putting down a pencil outline, inking some edges and shadows and rubbing out any remaining pencil marks, I added some dry colour with the Artgraf blocks. I put down sanguine and ochre in what looked like the dark and middle toned areas in my source photo (I didn’t use the Notanizer app today). And for a bit of variety, I added some blue, green and red in places. For the podium, I used blue, green and sepia.

Then I wet all my dry marks. Everything came out OK but after staring at the painting for a while, I came to the conclusion that all the lost edges down Anastasia’s left side (on the right of the painting) were a bit too lost. Anastasia’s arm and torso were looking too thin as my eyes were interpreting her white highlights as part of the background. So I added background colours: mainly blue and sanguine on the right and yellow and sanguine on the left, but with the odd bit of sepia, red or magenta in places. And then I wet the marks and that was me done.

The final result? Well it’s interesting. I like the painterly style in the background but am wondering if there’s too muck paint there and whether some diagonal or horizontal bands could have done a better job, still helping distinguish the body from the background but also keeping things a bit lighter. Maybe next time. Anastasia’s up for sale though.