Laryssa

In September 2010 the new season started at de Stoker again. Previously I had just occasionally attended model sessions at de Stoker. For this season I had arranged it so that I would be a permanent attendee of the model sessions. I had acquired a reasonable experience of the acrylic medium and I had the feeling that acrylic provides slightly more flexibility for a beginner of painting portraits and models compared to aquarelle.

This model had brown golden skin and as you can see she kept her panties on but for the rest she is nude. The real face was completely different compared to what I painted but as long as it looks like a nice face that fit with the body I was happy. I was intrigued by the light and how the breasts created a shadow on the belly. I even suggested the shadow of a nipple on her arm. The hands are still something I need to work on, oh well progress comes in steps. Many times the background is a cloth or a curtain at de Stoker. I liked this white background and how it had a couple of gentle curtain folds. The model is sitting on a chair draped with a white cloth.

On this painting I decided to leave out the lower part of the legs. Later I took on the challenge of making compositions of the entire models and it is not always easy. As a first painting of a season this decision was a good way of getting an empowered feeling that ‘there you see, I can do this’. I was not aware about the challenge when I made this painting.

Acrylic paint is very direct and it was a challenge to get the skin of the model look smooth and golden. I tried acrylic retarder to give me more time to mix the colors. In a way you can say that retarder is making acrylic medium to become oily but not really. So why not stop using acrylic as oil paint and then use oil paint for what oil is good at and acrylic for what that is good at?

I painted this 19th of September and 26th of September 2010.

I moved from Sweden to The Netherlands in 1995.

Here on this site, you find my creations because that is what I do. I create.