Another Two

Here are another two portraits, drawn at home and painted at my AVA session on Thursday.

16" x 12" Centenaire 140lb (300gsm) not "Queen of the Desert"

Blog followers will know I am an  admirer of the photographer Edward Curtis who is famous for his portrayals of American indians, mostly taken in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In this instance I came across a photo entitled `Queen of the Desert'. Rather different to his other work, further searching produced the information it was taken in 1898 and was a posed photo of an African American model - no name attached. No indian maiden would have posed like this, although in some tribes partial nudity was not uncommon.

I found it hard to tackle and did it in two or three stages, with a few days between the first and second. Although stated to be an `African - American' her skin tones looked pretty light apart from the areas of deep shade on the left hand side (facing) of her face. Unfortunately these black and white photos tend to have very harsh dividing lines between tones and it is probably better not to follow them too closely. Colours were Gold Ochre plus a lighter yellow, Cadmium Red, Raw Sienna, Cerulean, Ultramarine and Translucent Brown in various combinations. I used three brushes, all Isabey nos 4 to 8

Buffalo Bill Cody Western Legend, 16" x12" not sure what the paper is other than it is  140lb not .

Exactly same brushes and colours mainly Cadmium Red with a little Raw Sienna for the skin areas. Ultramarine Blue with Transparent Brown plus Raw Umber, in various combinations for the rest. Possibly slight touches of one or two other colours.