Sirrico

Here's my latest portrait. This is the second time I painted Sirrico and I probably will paint him again. I am pleased with him and can see my improvement from portrait to portrait. But I am not 100% satisfied with him. Sound familiar?

Sirrico is a very nice young man and I met him when he was working with children at the Kempsville Recreation Center. He also is involved with music and writes children's books. He was the first person that I approached to photo for a painting and he was very kind about doing so.

I have been studying with Rieneke Leenders and concentrating on painting portraits. She paints magnificent portraits in watercolor and oils. Check out her website at http://www.rieneke.com/.

She has taught me a great deal about glazing colors. In this portrait I put down yellows, then reds then blues and browns mixed together. The yellows and reds shine thought the skin and gives it great tones. The problem that I had with this portrait is that I put so many layers down that the paint was just sitting on the surface and it was difficult to continue to work on and to touch up. In the future I need to try using 300 lb. paper which will hold more paint and/or using less layers by putting down more color for each layer.

I must apologize for not posting as frequently as in the past. I have been keeping very busy and am feeling a little stressed about not having enough time to do everything I want to do. Hope to visit with you again soon!!!