Day 3 - Study in Pink

Study in Pink, Acrylic on Gessoed Mat Board, 10"x7"

Day 3 - 30 Paintings in 30 Days Challenge

For this painting, I used a photo of a cousin of mine that was taken about ten years ago. She is very fair,with light skin, hair and eyes. I really struggled to see the shapes because the values occupied such a narrow range. Frustrated, I went into Photoshop and really increased the contrast and decreased the lightness of the original photo. The result was a much clearer definition of the shapes and relative values. I used the adjusted photo to do the black and white bock-in and then went back to the original photo to put in the final colors. Other than the eyes, this painting only used black, white, and alizarin crimson.