I’m so happy I made this, and it wasn’t total crap!
this week’s challenge was to make a replica based on Agnes Cecile‘s painting “I could but I can’t”.
She has a full video of the making of, which certainly gave me an idea of how she made it, this is only a minimal part of what it takes to make a replica, however.
Unlike her, I’ve never painted with Acrylics before, and this one has a lot of it, specially in the hair, I went full watercolor on my version, and you can actually see the big difference.
I’m the first to admit that my version looks simple and unfinished, but I think it looks really close to the actual colors in person.
It was my first time using a 22″x30″ paper, which has it’s cons and pros, It’s harder to maintain proportions while making an under sketch to begin painting, but really allows you to fine tune those details, specially in the eyes. (did you notice Agnes didn’t paint eyelashes?)
After the skin, the dress was all black so it was no big issue.
Hair has always been my nemesis, and this time wasn’t the exception. for this section the real struggle was mixing the right colors in the right value… and on top of that I had to be careful not to paint on the highlight zones, or near the hair strands: this caused the final painting to lack a natural feel on the strokes of the hair.
with acrylics I would have been able to paint over other strands and get the right mix every stroke.
