Bold and beautiful
Professional artist SARAH JANE MOON shows you how she painted this bold portrait of Reeta Loi in her signature colourful style
Reeta Loi is someone I have long admired for their commitment to raising awareness around gender, race and LGBTQ+ equality. They are the CEO and founder of Gaysians which supports LGBTQ+ South Asians and promotes a network of organisations that span different faiths, gender identities and sexualities. Music and writing are also at the core of Reeta’s work.
I am currently partway through painting a large, full-length portrait of Reeta in which they sport pink trousers to match their pink hair, wonderful shoes and a long and luxurious deep blue coat, with gold detailing. Reeta has such a stylish and bold look that I thought they would make the perfect subject for this dynamic, expressive portrait.
1 ESTABLISHING THE COMPOSITION
I often start a painting by drawing in using oil thinned with solvent. A pointy hog brush is my go-to for drawing and I use it to suggest the angle of the features and position of the head in relation to the canvas edge. Colours at this stage are very general and serve to give an approximate idea of value.
2 BLOCKING COLOUR
I swiftly move on to a larger brush and colour (still very thin) to establish the composition in a less linear way. This gives an opportunity to try out general areas of colour and think about whether they will work together as the painting progresses. As these early layers are mostly solvent, they dry very quickly and both the drawing and the colour can be changed easily if necessary.
3 POSITIONING THE FEATURES
I continue to build these early layers of the painting by both drawing in with a thin brush and thinking about tone and colour with a larger brush. All my hog brushes are round as I prefer the marks they make and they suit the way I apply oil, which is often with the side of the brush.
4 BUILDING LARGE AREAS OF TONE
The composition is planned out by breaking down each aspect of the painting into large areas of tone. The oil at this stage is still relatively thin, but as the painting progresses, I keep the fat over lean rule in mind. This is the idea that less solvent is used – and by extension more oil or ‘fat’ – as the surface of a painting is built up to avoid cracking as layers dry. ▸
5 REASSESSING
My whole way of working is deliberately constructed to allow radical change to the painting at any stage. However, this is easier at the beginning and so, if something needs to change, I try to be bold. With this painting, I decided early on that the yellow in the background wasn’t working and so painted it out, replacing it with more blue and green.
6 REFINING THE FEATURES
Here I work on the features, paying particular attention to drawing. I avoid details such as earrings, hair texture etc as these are best dealt with at the very end of the painting. At this stage, I begin to use oil without solvent to add more expressive detail to the background and to build the darks through the coat (so it will dry with time to add the lighter gold / yellow detail on top).
8 RESOLVING AND CLARIFYING
Next, I begin to bridge any tonal transitions that might appear too harsh. I apply clean fresh colour with bold strokes in the lighter areas. I am painting wet into wet with very thick oil and so there is a tendency for the paint to shift. To avoid this, I mix each colour separately with a relatively clean brush, apply it and then wipe my brushes well between brush strokes. The decorative detail is worked on the coat and the hair is suggested with gestural marks. Details of the features and jewellery are added.
7 ADDING BOLD DARKS
Using heavier brush strokes, I continually push the darks in order to provide contrast, visual interest and dynamism. Paying close attention to the direction of my marks, I try to be creative and playful in the application of oil to canvas. It is helpful to really think about the range and variety of colours within the head and not be afraid to push this in an interesting or unconventional direction.
9 THINKING AGAIN
In this final stage of the painting, I try to think critically about what is and isn’t working. I freshen up some of the colours through the face with pink and red and add a few areas of light Cerulean Blue to the lights which had begun to appear a little dull. Further detail is added to the hair and eyes with a smaller brush and any problematic areas are resolved. ▫