A quick two session sketch in oils. Still working from graphite to darks, to midtones, to highlights. More or less a direct painting style with some additional glazing. Need to work on increasing chiaroscuro and expanding my palette. My direct paintings risk appearing a bit two-dimensional (Susan would say “cartoon-like.”) Perhaps that’s a function of the speed with which I paint and the lack of attention to the subtle presence of many colors that can be perceived if one takes the time to look carefully at the sitter. Instead, I typically choose one transparent umber/blue for the shadows, two semi-opaque midtones and one opaque for the highlights. This would be similar to “posterizing” an image with a limited number of levels, which is how a cartoonist, graphic artist or wood-block / silkscreen artist works.
