Yesterday I hit a wall when considering how to handle the garland. With so many defined little lines, I knew the oil pastels would be troublesome, and pencils would look too rough (unless I blended the heck out of them). So, that left paint, and I have not had great luck with extended areas of paint lately. Funny how I spent 3 or more years creating over 100 pieces with nothing but paint, and just a few years later I cringe at doing just a section.
Anyway, I mixed the skin tones in gouache and covered the torso where the garland would go. WHen I started to add in some white to blend up the highlights, it got ugly, and I got frustrated. I walked away and took a break for the day.
Today, I started anew, and knowing paint would not work well for me, I got the idea to use the airbrush. Since much of the skin contours would be lost beneath the garland, I didn’t need it to be too refined, so the airbrush should work well. I mixed the colors, this time in acrylics. This will make it easier to paint the garland over the top without it mixing in.
With the skin set, I began painting little lines of gray gouache along the garland lines, creating the base for the tinsel. Then I added some white bits over that, and went back over it with a moist brush, blending some of that in. I finished the garland off with a few more gray lines and white lines here and there.
I spent the remainder of the day working in the skin, first painting in the textures gesso, then using colored pencils to rough in the color and contours, and finally oil pastels to blend it all together. With luck, I’ve blended the pastels well enough that the painted skin areas arn’t any different than the pastels skin…