Summer Doll Painting

copyright 2011 Moira Richardson

This painting is by far my favorite one so far in my series of four seasonal paintings. If you check out Winter and Autumn, I'll sure your see that Summer is much improved. I wasn't sure, at first, how I was going to represent summer, but then I pictured a girl with sunglasses on her head and knew that was the way I wanted to go. 

I think that the shading on this face is the best of the three paintings, and the eye lashes look much better, too. I found a smaller paint brush, which really made a big difference. I might have added more glazing medium to the black paint as well. Again, I think her checks are fabulous. 

I am also quite proud of how the sunglasses turned out. I drew the outline of the glasses before I painted the hair and decided that I wanted a transparent look to them. I did the hair right on top of the outline, then, when the paint was dry, used my PITT artist pen, brush tip, to redo the outline. I used Stewart Gill Alchemy paint in Afterglow for her eyes and the sunglasses, also a touch on her tank top. You can't see it very well in the picture her, but in person, the glasses and her eyes twinkle just like they would in the sun. 

I love the Stewart Gill paint, available in the U.S. from Artistcellar, and will definitely buy it in more colors, just as soon as I can afford it! The paint is about $8 for tiny 30 ml jar, so it's wicked pricey... but it's so worth it! (It totally helped that this was a Christmas present from my fabulous Mom!) Also, as long as it doesn't dry out, I'm pretty sure this paint will last for ages. Since it's so expensive, I'll only be using it for small details that need a little oomph! 

One thing that I forgot to mention in my other painting post is that I outlined the girls using a mixture of black and white pan pastels. I basically did the outline in black then added white to blend and smooth it out. I like how it make the girl "pop" from the background. I decided to leave the background pretty plain. I thought a nice sky blue was just enough to add to the summer vibe without detracting from the focal point. The canvas is small, 8 x 10 inches, so there's not much room to play.

Want it as a pocket mirror?

As seen on CraftGawker.