New Rag Reduction Oil Portrait

In the last couple of hours of the Sebastian River Art Club's show in Riverview Park I decided to start a painting ... silly me.  But I must follow my "muse" whever it calls me, otherwise it may not come back again soon after.  So I slopped some alizarin crimson and sap green all over the unprimed canvas with a palette knife putting globs here and there at random.  Then I took a big brsh and squished it all over the canvas, allowing the colors to be somewhat separate in spots.

Then I looked for a rag, and found I had none in my bag, and I was stuck.  So I took a paper towel and some Q-tips I had packed and went to it, wiping the highlights away, leaving the shadowed areas intact.  Looked pretty bad at first, but within about a half hour it started looking like a face.  I lightly glazed alizarin on the cheeks, prussian blue on the iris, orange at the bottom of the eyeball for the glow under the sparkle at the top.  It was such fun to begin to see that face looking out at me--that's the part I love.  I think she's beautiful, and can't wait to frame her, although I looked and looked today and could't find a 9"x12" frame.  Not a common size.  I will be demonstrating this technique tomorrow at the Sebastian River Art Club during my class.  Enjoy.