Bailamos!

Her right hand is driving me nuts and it's late (I'm usually a morning painter and it's 10 pm) so I decided to step away and lay fresh eyes on it tomorrow. That said, aside from a few things I want to tweak I'm pretty happy with it. It suggests movement to me, which was essentially what I was after, that and the dramatic lighting.

Some drawing/anatomy practice would surely save me a good deal of frustration. Need to get on that.

Flamenco, Background

I did the impasto background for my flamenco dancer. When it dries I'll work on her. Also changed some anatomy a little.

Flamenco

So this is my flamenco dancer, roughed in. Although I think her face and arms need some work regardless, I am trying to divorce myself from the idea that every painting has to have photographic detail, and as I look at this I am wondering how it would have gone if I had done this with a knife. Not that I can't still do that. I am quite pleased with even the rough on her dress, though.

So, What do you think? Should I make this a typically (for me) detailed painting, paint in her features carefully (and fix her arms and hands), or should I let it be an impressionist kind of "gesture" painting with a palette knife when I get to layer two?  I think I'm leaning toward the latter.

Going Big

The largest painting I have going (before today) was the Weimaraner painting, 9x12. I've been planning to do this flamenco dancer for my mom for ages now. I finally got her sketched and a rough background (ivory black with some crimson & violet mixed in, and some Payne's gray). I thought something with all that movement would be fun to try with the knife, so that's my plan. This is 18x24.