Holly Pettis' Final Project

My inspiration for this project came from a photo I found that I loved. I really wanted to do a concentration of different painting of the same size, but as I began my project I found that I did not like that as much because it did not add to the main painting, but made it confusing. I wanted to paint a person because I have never really done that. I wanted to use texture which I used in her hair. I created this piece using oil paint on canvas. I love oil paint and it was easy for me to use when painting my piece because I had to create a lot of value in her face to make it more realistic. There is a gradation throughout her face in the colors that I used like her skin tone as well as in her eyes. The painting is square and balanced on both sides. It is balanced because the face covers basically the entire canvas and the hair covers both sides of the face which balances it out fully and makes the painting symmetrical especially because it is a face it has to be symmetrical if I want the face to look normal and not distorted. It was really challenging for me to make is symmetrical and both sides of the face to look the same and to get the shadows right on the face. The colors on the lips were a huge challenge for me to make it stand out but at the same time to make it not so noticeable. The lips definitely have some dominant colors in them and I wanted to use the same color I used for her eyes as I used in the background which was a turquoise blue. I think I was successful at creating texture in her hair and making it look like hair and her face is more realistic which I like instead of it being more abstract which I wanted to stay away from. I liked using oil paint definitely better than using acrylic because I can keep working on blending colors without having to worry about it drying before I had time to finish it.