Alternative Beauty

The mood of the painting is very relaxed but also very elegant in its own sense. The warm tones give it a nice comfortable atmosphere and it feels organic to look at. I took a risk with the shading, it took me quite a while to get the form and colors correct but it helped me with my values, texture, and color. The values range from light pinks, to reds and blacks and the values of the shadows are very dramatic and dark. The texture of the skin in the painting is fairly smooth but there is some texture that really accentuated the 3D form of the face. The color is monochromatic, hence it being a monochromatic painting, but I also used complementary colors to form shadows and depth on the face. I think the darkness of the top left corner is balanced out by the lower right corner with the shading down there. The dark line on the bridge of the nose helps emphasize it as the focal point. I used the brush strokes in the direction the face moves to give it that 3D effect, I used mainly two round brushes and a filbert brush for large coverage and blending. I used references from various artists especially in the beginning when I was first layering different shades, and I used references from our previous learning and notes in our sketchbook and presentations and from there I grew and branched out into my own style.

My expressive intent is to show the beauty in something that people might not think about such as a nose or a nose piercing. I want to communicate the simplicity in something small and how it adds character and personality to a person even if you can only see one part of them.”