The faces that I added today were inspired by three students from my Statistics class last spring term. [The final paintings deliberately do not look exactly like the models, although I think they will recognize themselves.] They were deep in a conversation about the course material at the end of the hour, and I caught them mid-discussion.
Painting the faces is a very intense activity that requires a great deal of concentration, and frequent stops to allow layers to dry. I begin by laying in deep shadows and giving the face bone structure. Today I laid down the deep shadows on a total of six faces. The deep shadows are a mixture of dioxazine purple and burnt sienna. The deep shadows have to dry completely before the rest of the face can be painted.
On the face overall, the darker hues and shades are laid down first, and then the lighter hues and tints are painted over top. Darker pigments are a mix of unbleached titanium, burnt sienna, dioxazine purple (very small amounts), cadmium red medium, and small amounts of titanium white. Lighter pigments include larger proportion of titanium white, unbleached titanium, and tiny amounts of cadmium red. There is a lot of ruddiness and pink in Caucasian faces.
I also provided a body for the fellow in the blue/white striped shirt, and used a soft pencil to sketch in the next major area of students that will probably be the focus of work later this week.
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