Bringing new life to an old piece!

Sometimes its good to revisit previous work, push it into something more, something you didn't see or see well enough before. With the piece that I am sharing today, that is what I wanted to accomplish. I did this painting originally about 11 years ago in a course that was part of my senior year study in the Fine Art program at East Carolina University.
We had a painting a week that was due and this Painting Studio class was not the only class I was required to create work for on a weekly basis. I managed to whip together what I would now consider a jumping off point and was able to complete the assignment in a day so I would have something to turn in.

We were given a weekly theme for our weekly paintings and the theme for this particular one was "Smoke Entering a Room", hence the name. I love Flappers and the period of 1930-1940's fashion, so I knew I wanted to paint a woman and have her smoking (a widely popular habit of the time) which would reinforce the concept of smoke entering a room.

Recently in scouring through my files, I saw this painting and I instantly could not help but notice so many things that I was not pleased with. So, I decided to take the original painting done in Acrylics on 18x24 Stretched paper and photographed to bring in digitally, and re-work some areas. I still have some details I want to go back in and re-visit, but this is where I have gotten so far working on it over a 3 day period of time with about 2, 6+ hour sittings and a 3 hour sitting.

ORIGINAL:

NEW:

I am really enjoying how she is coming along, I think I have achieved a better sense of volume in the face with better planar representation, the tilt of the head was improved and is looking more natural. I am seeing more things now every time I see it and it is starting to drive me crazy! I think I will go in and work on the eyes and eyebrows a bit more and I would like to add a few more details to the hat and dress. Let me know what you guys think and check back as I may post an update on my continued process with her.

I hope everyone is enjoying their last few hours of 2017 - we ring in the New Year here tonight and we are getting ready to join up with friends and celebrate the coming of a whole new 365 days! Please be safe out there and I hope you will have a blessed new year! As always, y'all, I appreciate your support and send much love and light to you all! Until next time... STEEM ON!

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