The Cellist - Part II

Study for The Cellist
oil painting work in progress - Take II

Earlier this month I had the opportunity to work with a cellist as my model. It was an amazing experience which you can read about here, but while the study from that session was very spontaneous and fresh, it was also very rough. Since the cellist was willing to sit for me again, I jumped at the chance to improve upon what I had already done. I've been learning in leaps and bounds during these sessions, pushing myself waaaaaay out of my comfort zone and really surprising myself with what I've been able to pull off. I'm also falling into some classic beginner portrait painting traps. I think stating "I don't paint humans" is a defense mechanism so I don't have to feel bad if the piece doesn't come out. For example, the proportions of the cellist's hand and arm are off compared to her face, but I can just shrug my shoulders and say, "Well, what did you expect? I don't paint humans." While this keeps me from beating myself up about any mistakes, I have to be careful: I'm starting to really like painting humans...