Oil Painting Lesson with Gregory Smith - Day 6

Today, I spent a whole lesson trying to get a statue right.
However, I ended up fiddling everywhere, completely forgetting tonal balance.

Then, towards the end of lesson, Greg showed me the importance of seeing big shapes.

He told me that there are four main planes, her thigh to knee, top of her head, chest and her tummy.

I had been drawing small lines here and there to try to create three dimensions, but, he just got rid of them, painting much broader basic planes to achieve that.

The result was a really truthful rendition of tonal three dimensionality. He just does that so easily!

I learned a lot today.

Work in progress. 16 x 20 in.