Jolene

Oil on wood, 12 x 9 inches (31 x 23 cm)

With this painting I started with a cropping of the figure from waist up, knowing that fitting the whole figure within a small rectangle would be a drawing challenge. But on second thought I decided to tackle the whole figure because this quantity of human flesh would clearly make for a pretty dramatic painting. By taking a considerable amount of time laying out the drawing I was eventually able to satisfy myself that the whole body and all of the parts would fit on the board and be more or less proportional. The rest was pure joy!