Work in Progress Wednesday

I did a semi-abstract nude series and was quite happy with most of the pieces. However, this particular painting troubled me right from the get go, so it was left untouched from its early stages and has been buried in my studio for at least 4 or 5 years! For some reason, I recently decided it was finally time to go back and work on her again.


Right away, I could tell that what bothered me most was her proportions. While the series was about soft curves and textured backgrounds, rather than realistic details, her proportions were just too off for me to be happy. As I built up color, I also adjusted her proportions, giving her a more curvacious figure. She's still not quite there, but I'm happier. I used to juxtapose straight lined hair against the curvy figure, but it doesn't feel right anymore, so I changed her hair to the more flowy, curvy hair that I usually do now.


I'm also not sure I'm happy with the current placement of her arms, though to be fair, it's hard to tell for certain since I haven't started defining them yet. At the moment, they are just roughly sketched in with a large paint brush. Before I go further with her, I decided to play around in Photoshop and try a few other options. My mouse control is terrible, but I am still able to get a general idea of how it would affect the composition if I move her arms to her sides. It's probably a more expected placement, so I'm not sure I'll change it. Many of the other pieces in the series have arms lifted high or swinging around, as if they are dancing, so leaving them in their current position fits in with that concept more.

I'll give it some thought and just see where she takes me. I probably won't have time to work on her until closer to Christmas, but hopefully, it won't take me another 5 years to finish her!