A different Figure Painting

At home, I have another figure painting underway.  Our friend Chol is posing for me on Saturday mornings in our living room in front of a black backdrop. Below is my progress after the 3rd session yesterday.  There are still some drawing issues to correct, but overall I'm pleased at how it's going.  The basic palette I'm working with is ivory black, flake white, burnt umber, burnt sienna and raw sienna.  I'll be adding some green to the white for highlights, but I still have to figure out the best mix for his skin in the shadows. The classic pattern of cool highlights, warm skin tone, cool half-tones, and warm shadows doesn't seem to apply to the same degree here.  In this last session I was concentrating more on getting the values right than the colour.

Setting the Palette for Skin Colours

Pinned to a wall in the figure painting room at the school is Juan's palette for flesh tones. The principal colours he uses are: Lamp Black, Veridian (Green), Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Cadmium Red, Yellow Ochre Pale, and White (Lead or Titanium).  Optional Colours include: Raw Umber, Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Yellow, and Alizarin Crimson Permanent.

Here's a link to an online note summarizing basic rules about skin tones:
http://studioproducts.com/demo/palettxt.html

Second Figure Painting Begins...

I'm on a slow journey to working with full colour when painting figures.

Last fall at the Academy of Realist Art, I started figure painting sessions once a week and the first exercise for me was to paint the model Robin in monochrome -- neutral greys created by mixing ivory black, raw umber, and crementz white.  The image below is the results after about 8 sessions in total. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to advance to the "second painting" stage and smooth out some of the raw areas and edges.

Now I'm on my second figure painting there. This time, raw umber has been replaced by Venetian Red. The objective is to gradually introduce the concept of warms and cools in the painting. The skin tones will be primarily warm (Venetian Red + White), with some cooling down with grey in some shadows.  The background areas will be primarily cool (Ivory Black + White) with some Venetian Red for some overall harmony.   The model is sitting in a dark red velvet chair which itself has been cooled down with greys so that it won't compete with the level of chroma in the figure. (There's a more intense red in the shadow on the stomach than in the chair itself, so that's why the chair has to be cooled down). The image below is from my third session Jan 25th.