(reviewing old work) Painting 1: Emily

painting is tedious work... it can take hours of painting before I'm happy with a piece, meaning this blog can only slowly grow. However, I DO have a lot of old work, so why not review it?

Painting 1: Emily

This is probably my most 'famous' (haha) piece. It is of my sister, and it was entered for the Royal Acadmey of Arts A-level Exhibition Online 2008. 760 paintings throughout Britain where entered, and 55 works were chosen to feature in the exhibition. My painting 'Emily' was chosen, and is shown as the first painting on the page (you can visit the exhibition here). It then went on to be featured in the Romsey Advertiser (you can read the article here).

parts of the painting that I'm happy with:

I was happy with how the hair turned out on this particular piece. I'd always found painting hair a challange before, but I think this piece helped me overcome all my hair problems! I basically started off with a base that was pretty much the same colour (mid-gray), and worked in white highlights using a slightly scratchy brush that created the strands of hair. I continued to build up the highlights whilst adding depth, where it was needed, with black.


The fabric Emily was wearing in the original photo was velvet, which challenged me to try and replicate the fabric with paint. I enjoyed the challange, and I think it turned out well.