Failure, and some sketches

In the interest of keeping up a weekly posting schedule, I’m going to show you my latest painting even though it is terrible.

This was an attempt to paint Myrna Loy, an actress from way back in the silent movie era, who so brilliantly navigated the rocky early waters of “talkies” that her repartee with on-screen partner William Powell in the Thin Man movies formed a legend that continues to this day.

Here’s the original picture, for reference:

At some point, I couldn’t stand looking at my version any more. It’s distorted and awful, and I can no longer see why. I’ll probably return to it later. Hopefully I can do a better job. She deserves more.

Most of the last couple weeks I’ve spent making little sketches to practice perspective or anatomy. I’ll leave you with a couple examples.