Cast painting

This cast painting was completed over a few weeks in early 2016. The painting was a great exercise in understanding how to create soft transitions in paint. I used a mixture of optical blending, where you place subtly gradated tones side by side on the canvas, and physical blending where adjoining patches of tone are mixed on the canvas surface.

I found the drawing a little tricky on this project, particularly getting the eyes aligned and the cheek in the shadow side receding properly. The effort was worth it though, and I'm really pleased with the piece. ​