Carol Howard Is Face #78 in My 100 Faces Project

"Carol Howard: Face #78," oil, 12"h x 12"w, copyright Jill Banks 2011

Carol Howard, one of my students in Still Life class, agreed ... rather reluctantly ... to sit for my 100 Faces in 100 Days Project. While she's been involved with art forever-ish, Carol's relatively new to painting. She trained as a technical illustrator using airbrush, worked in clay, has an eye for art. She's passionate about painting and getting better and better. That pretty much sums up my whole class.

She arrived at my door with this beautiful blue sweater. Her 23-year-old daughter was her advisor ... as in "Mom, you can't wear black ... it will wash you out." Great advice. And, a fun color to paint. I even had to call in an auxiliary color, one not regularly on my palette, for this. Pthalo blue by Winsor & Newton stays bright and intense when mixed with white, while other blues dull and get chalkier with white. But, when I mix pthalo blue with white, it's intense though a bit blue-greenish. Add to that mixture some French Ultramarine Blue to warm it up and voila! A bright slightly warm blue. Hint, though. The order that you mix colors can matter.

Carol and I had a great time talking. There were lots of "small world" conversations She'd worked at Sikorsky Aircraft in Connecticut ... the same place that my maid of honor, Pat Fresiello, worked right after college.

Tomorrow's the last day of the session for Still Life. Time for me to go out and get a few things for the day. In store for them: some fun drills and sketches, value studies, color studies. Something different.

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