A 3-hour Painting

Lately I’ve have had the urge to do some figurative work, so Thursday evening I decided to do a quick painting, mentally limiting myself to spending only three hours on it altogether. The idea was to have fun with the painting and work as quickly as I could. The first evening I spent one hour on it. The first image shows where I was at about fifteen minutes, then I let that dry a wile and went back to it later and spent another 45. That’s when I took the second image. Didn’t look like much was happening, but I know that the exciting stuff starts to happen about two hours in.




The next image shows where I was at after spending another hour on it last night. Now she is starting to take shape. I was consciously trying to stay loose, not getting too hung up on the details and letting myself be okay with the brush strokes showing.



This last image is where I was after spending another hour (and a half, I guess I’m cheating a little here). Now she has really come together, but in some areas I’ve worked it a bit hard, smoothing out the face and losing the brushwork effect. In truth, this painting could use more work, the background is quite nebulous. It could be worked further but I am posting it as is. Maybe I’ll go back and work on it some more but for right now, here is my latest painting, Girl in a Hat, 14” x 18”, acrylic on canvas.