Franka, The Fortune Teller

[L Skylar Brown]

NOT another Natascha! This is my typical style - more impressionistic & looser (I like to paint fast). This was a portrait challenge. The model was dressed in contemporary clothes, but with all that jewelry. So I went with the obvious, and made her a Gypsy Card Reader. Wardrobe inspired by Raphael. Orig size 4200x3200 pxl x300 ppi, one layer.

[Jasminek]

She is so pretty, wonder what she thinks about the December 2012!

[gioulin]

i like her jewels! very nice detailed work!

[coops]

Great painting again Skylar

[gxhpainter]

Skylar - beautiful reds against the greens of the scarf... lovely pensive look. I like this looser ( loose being relative ) style... I noticed that you usually work at 300dpi... do you find it slows down your work or do you have a really fast system... also now that your in Costa Rica how do you get your work printed?

[limey-g]

Very nice detail especially in the jewellery , well done.
Geoff

[L Skylar Brown]

Jas - Thank you. It took a minute for me to understand the 12/2012 ref, but I'm sure she would be thinking past that point.

Gioulin, Coops, Geoff - Thank you for the comments.

GXH - Thanks. To me, there is quite a diff in the tight, and loose ways I paint. One takes much longer, and more intense concentration. As for the res. I use, I like 300 ppi because I am seeing what the image would look like printed (300 DPI is standard in the industry for high quality printing) So I can adjust as I go. I am currently using a wide-screen Toshiba with a 2.5 Ghz dual processor, 3 Gigs RAM, on a 64 bit Op Sys. With a 350 Gig harddrive. Pretty fast.

[P. D. Dinkles]

I see through her sunken deeply penetrating eyes and her attentive nature that the fortune teller is fixed upon her client. She listens, but does not rely on words. and ponders fate and all the signs and symptoms of this person's life, past, present, and future. A quiet penetration through time reveals the pre-determined fate. Peering through the subject now she decide. what should and should not be spoken. It is something she can tell us, but nothing we can do anything about.

It reminds me of the practice of Russian doctors with terminal cancer patients. They do not tell the patient. For what good is that. Let them live their final days in peace without the agony of treatments that fail. It's not science. It is a dart board.

You paint such rich believable characters. Always look forward to your works.

[L Skylar Brown]

P D - Thanks so much for the comments. Your musing/observations are great!

[Caesar]

Wonderful and expressive gipsy portrait. It's such a naturally looking oil that I guess You may have worked on essential canvas.