Hello Friends:
It's been awhile since I've made a posting. For the past few weeks, starting with Romel dela Torre's charcoal workshop, I've been concentrating on drawing and painting in just one color. This process has been frustrating for me at times, which tells me that perhaps I've gotten too comfortable in my usual way of painting, and that I may have been relying on color a little too heavily.
When we paint monochromatically, it forces us to examine edges. Since we no longer have different colors to describe where one thing ends and another begins, sometimes these edges will be quite fuzzy and at times will dissappear althogether, as they do in the study above. Observe how the edge of the model's face disappears into the background. The viewer's eye must fill in the missing information, which I believe makes for a more interesting portrait. I'll try to use this softness more often in all my portraits in the future.
Hopefully, this frustration will result in some growth!
