Painting Poses: Update #6

"Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do." -Edgar Degas

So true, Mr. Degas! My fellow painters out there, don't you agree? In keeping with this quote, I've been continuing to work on my yoga pose paintings, but have been struggling with wanting to change my approach, or my style a bit, and loosen up my brushstrokes in these paintings.  In my session this past Thursday I put some finishing touches on a few paintings that I've been working on for a while now, but then spent most of my time at the studio working on the two new pose paintings that I started the week before. I've been consciously trying to paint these pieces in a different manner than the others, and I think they're beginning to take shape. You can see the yoga pose paintings that I've finished thus far on my painting website, which I finally updated yesterday, and then compare them two the two that I'm working on now. Hopefully, you can see a bit of a difference in the painting style...

As always, I've included two pictures of the paintings--one that shows where I left off after the first painting session, and another that shows the painting after the second session.

Painting #1: Forearm Stand (Pincha Mayurasana)

Where I left off after my first painting session--the underpainting stage.

Where I left off on Thursday. I decided to do these paintings in black & white to change things up a bit even more--but am keeping a splash of color here and there. Thoughts/feedback on this? Still a lot of work to do on this painting, but the overall color palette is getting to where I want it to be...

Painting #2: Wheel Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana)

Again, after the first session. Very sketchy and not too developed...

Beginning to take shape! Still needs A LOT of work, but again, beginning to convey the overall tone that I'm going for.

So, what do you think about the black & white paintings? I feel like I've done enough yoga paintings now that I'm beginning to feel more comfortable with the subject matter. Sometimes it takes 5-10 paintings of a subject before you begin to handle it the way that you'd really like to, and I think that's where I'm getting now. I'm still having a great time, which is really why I paint, and I think I will continue to paint figures in yoga poses until I'm sick of the subject matter and want to move on...

Thanks for joining me in the creative process!

Namaste,
Mary Catherine