Marilyn Monroe unfinished oil painting on canvas.

Marilyn Monroe, unfinished painting.

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Broken brush strokes are used on the background to create a feeling of movement.

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The hair and earrings have been built up with thick paint so that they catch the light.

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It is difficult to know what to do next with this painting sometime I feel that less is more.

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The next time you see this painting it will be finished.

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Marilyn Monroe unfinished.

Unfinished painting of
Marilyn Monroe
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I am going to call this painting butterfly in the night because her dress looks a bit like a butterfly, but she also looks a bit like a moth caught in the light.
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The skin is going to be painted smoothly without any brush marks in yellow ochre and white and the dress will be more textured. Hopefully this will create contrast between the two.
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Blonds are very difficult to paint I never seem to have the colour right, that is way I like painting Audrey Hepburn because she is dark. Some people paint ordinary things and make them look beautiful this is very clever, but I like to paint beauty and try to create a likeness.

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Marilyn Monroe drawing

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This is a drawing of Marilyn Monroe I have used the grid system a technique used by the Old Masters. This system is not perfect you don’t achieve the flowing effect of a free hand drawing. Also sometimes the grid shows on the finished painting, but even this can look quite nice.
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I should imagine a lot of people have painted this photo before. I want my painting to be different so I am going to paint the people in the background. It would make sense to simplify, but they look very interesting to me. One man is knelling with a box camera and there is a fat man laughing and a man trying to look the other way.

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Audrey Hepburn and baby.

Audrey Hepburn and baby.
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The painting is now finished, I don’t know if I’m happy with it or not.
I have tried to create a sense of movement with the baby being pulled up from the poverty towards the light.
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The background is distorted there is more behind Audrey than in front. This is like the horizon in the Mona Lisa. Leonardo painted a reality that is difficult to see and even harder to paint.
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I have painted across the folds of the drapery this works better than painting up-and-down with the direction of the material.
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Both faces are mostly monochrome like a fresco painting. I like this but I think the shadows should be darker on both faces. It must have been the camera flash that made the faces to bright and also gave the baby funny eyes.

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Unfinished painting of Audrey Hepburn.

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I have now covered almost all of the canvas with paint, using the complementary colours yellow with violet and blue with orange.

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Broken brush strokes have be used in the background, painting over the child on the right. This will hopefully push him into the distance and make him fainter.

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The drapery around the baby is too bright, but when I lighten it I will have a chance to change things.

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I use the paint straight from the tube I don’t mix the paint with anything. This is because I don’t like the smell of linseed oil or turpentine.
The next time you see the paint it will be finished.

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A new Painting

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Audrey Hepburn looks older in this painting, but she has a kind of inner beauty that is nice to paint. I like painting portraits of older people they have character and it is more of a challenge.
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This painting is going to have a lot of broken brush strokes with the white canvas showing.
It is like painting in watercolour but using oil paint. You don’t have any second chances once the canvas is covered the effect is lost forever.
This is a good way of painting if you don’t want to use too much paint or you are running out of white paint.
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Hopefully this will make the painting much freer than the others. I am using yellow ochre and burnt umber these colours will unite the painting together.

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