Gypsy Look, a Portrait Sketch

I did this sketch last night to take a break from a meticulous realistic large portrait I'm doing of my son. I chose a vacation photo of my wife, in the rental car, all tan from the beach except around her eyes because of her sunglasses.

It started just as a pencil sketch but I decided to color it. I was improvising, pushed the study farther than I should, applied paint beyond the capacity of the sketchbook paper and the paint started looking blotchy on the shaded area. I should know better, but thought "oh one more application will be alright..." Well it wasn't, but the study was fun to do and it captured her expression well, so I decided to share.

Gypsy Look, 8x10 inches, on a Strathmore visual journal, cadmium yellow, cadmium red light, burnt sienna, cobalt blue and perylene maroon, with some raw sienna, and some ultramarine blue used to mix the darkest darks, Escoda travel brush #12.