Nip and Tuck in Paint

Rising early in the morning again so that I could find a few quiet hours of painting, I trimmed the left side of the middle girl’s face so that she wasn’t quite so moon faced, then spent a while working out the angle of the mouth, dropping the left side down a quarter inch, fixing highlights and shadows around the lips, then making a new right eye, dropping this down a quarter inch to find the correct line. You can compare the newly shaped features of today with yesterday’s picture below.

As the only character in the drama who is not smiling at the Empress, this girl expresses dis-satisfaction at the events that she’s participating in. Is it jealousy or envy?

I’ll rework this face once more to correct it, but won’t do it for a couple of days. I’m not sure why, but I seem to see problems more clearly after a little time has passed form the time the work is executed. I’m tending toward letting her hair drop over the left eye a little more naturally, so I’ll try this out tomorrow.

About pearce

Michael Pearce is an artist, writer, and professor of art. He is the author of "Art in the Age of Emergence."
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