The Opposite of Alla Prima

Did you ever have a painting that refused to die? This is mine. The poor girl has been hanging around my house for four years in various stages of completion and incompletion. I painted her on a really good support- a linen panel that seems to be almost indestructible. Well, it has maintained its surface through five reworks, including a lot of scraping.

Today I decided to rework poor Julie yet again. She was a model for a class I took with Mike Malm at Scottdale Artists School in January 2011. Malm was a great teacher. I am just a slow learner as it has taken me four years to acquire the knowledge to fix all the things I did wrong. I did have the original photo of the model so that was helpful, even though I altered her appearance somewhat. Just because I could.

I scraped off a lot of the texture but not all. I actually like the way the different colors play against each other, I wouldn't like it nearly as mush if it was all smooth and flat like a layered Renaissance portrait, I am including a close-up of the skin because I think it's really interesting how all these layers of color can optically blend together and create a fairly realistic skin tone. You don't even notice this from a distance.

This is the final version. I am not going to attempt any more revisions. Yes, I have said that before, but this time I mean it. Although, maybe I should varnish it just to be sure.