Hair Chronicles/Study

What inspired me about this picture is I wanted to recreate the hot pink wall, the checkered floor, and the hairstyle on the canvas.  First I did a sketch of the design on the canvas of a picture that like Victoria and Dean inspired this

painting.  

Then I painted the top portion of the canvas neon hot pink. I tired to create a color using yellow, lavender and hot pink that would be as close to the wall on the picture as I could get it. Next was the Checkered floor that turned out to be a total pain in my butt when it came to the level of detail and patients it takes to reconstruct the tile without the white and black spilling over onto each other. After the floor I need to release some tension built up caused by the tediousness of the floor so I created the exaggerated brushstrokes inspired by John Dean. Although the figure is in a hair salon I could not imagine including the apron, so I started to play around mixing the whit and black colors and out popped this grayish silver color. For me I thought the mixture of colors would mesh well with the figures soon to be brown skin color.

Now all needed was to paint the body and I can start on the head, well I couldn't wait so I started on the head first that turned out to have both good and bad reproductions. One being the fact that I should have went all the way and finished the head and doubled back on the body, because after I put the net on I could not get to the color all the way on the neck. Two; because I sewed the ball on first I have to figure out a neat and clean way to hide the white spots that I could not reach. At this point the ball is on and I have just finished applying a mixture of red, green, purple, pink, black, and white to create a rich dark brown skin pigment. In the same way I did my model's sew in extensions, I used an over, under, and threw method on the head. After sewing, covering up mistakes, and re-sewing I got the hair on the freak in head (Sigh of relief).

Lastly I teased the hair a bit at the top and slowly began my in braid, which I finished off with a hair thread bow at the bottom.

  Although I enjoyed making the painting it was trial and error and in this fact "In Braid", as I titled it is a study for all other Hair Chronicle painting to come in this series. I think of In Braid as a study because I felt like I rushed some of the detail, as well as poor calculation on my part as to the position of the most important part the ball. The top of ball sits right on the wood block on the back of the canvas making it difficult to sew on to the canvas. Also I used watercolor to create this painting because I had to be careful to pick a substance that can be easily removed from any surface since I have a roommate and two little girls that I have no control over.