OILPAINTING old woman portrait black and white

A while ago I finished this portrait of an old woman. I found the photo on the internet.
The woman is suffering from Alzheimer and I was struck by her eyes.
You can see her confusion, not understanding.
I try to catch her expression with painting her in black and white. Her world is I think without colour, without details.
I hope you feel the same as I do.
This portrait is 20x15cm and painted on an MDF panel.
It took many many hours and I love to paint all those creases and folds of het skin.
A real challenge and I learned a lot.

underlayers of 3 little paintings "Old Master Technique"

For the Summer months I started 3 little paintings (15x20cm) I want to work on them without the help of my tutor. The next course will start in September.

On the painting of the Waterlily I worked 7 days and many many hours of painting only this first underlayer.
The background with the detailed leaves took very long to paint. The Waterlily has other challenges. The white and the shadows are not easy to get right
Many other underlayers will be added before I will start to ad layers of color.

 

Yesterday I worked on the face of this portrait of a little girl after a painting of Bougeaurau. Today I will work on the hair and the bottom.

And soon I will begin to work at the portrait of the dog.

I like to work on several different paintings at the same time so I do not have to wait till a layer is dry.

First layer of two new oil paintings, 15x20cm

I started 2 new oil paintings, one of a portrait of a dog and one of a little girl after the well known painter bouguereau. I love the paintings of this painter.

Only the first layer is added to the pieces of MDF. They both are 15x20 cm.

The color I used for these fine art painting method is raw umber and Titian white.
In the next layers, after this layer is dry, more details are added and I try to give it more depth and by adding darker color and white.

I love the color mixed with the umber and white.
It looks like an old photograph.

I want to paint  the portrait of the little girl only in using the umber and white and only add in the portrait of the dog some warmer brown/reddish.
Also the white is not really white but contains a lot of color other colors, cool and warm.
A real challenge.

But I am so proud that I managed to get all the things in the right places.
The painting of the dog sofar took me 4 days of hard work, but I loved it!

hydreanga finished, very colorfull

In finished the little painting of a hydreanga flower. 15x20cm
What a joy to paint all those tiny flowers.
Very difficult to take photographs. The layers of colors are so subtle and the underground is shining through.

I learned so much from painting this subject.
To see and paint all the different shapes and the many many tones.