As a watercolorist, I had stopped oil painting for a long time but when I started back up, I was tempted right away to try DANIEL SMITH Oil Paints! Living in Seattle, I appreciate a local company and knowing that these paints are kind to the environment. They are also well matched with the linen I work on. Here are the main oil colors I used for this portrait of Diana:

Titanium White
Burnt Umber
Yellow Ochre Light
Quinacridone Red
Hooker’s Green
Ultramarine Blue Deep
Lemon Yellow

With Burnt Umber and a big brush, I create my rough drawing first. Knowing that I can revise as I paint, it does not need to be perfect. For this subject, her skin color was created with a mix of Burnt Umber, Quinacridone Red, Yellow Ochre Light with Titanium White.

I think the most difficult part of a face is capturing the expression of the lips – my color mixture there was Titanium White and Quinacridone Red. I used Lemon Yellow, Perinone Orange and Cobalt Violet Light to create lights and shadows.

Some additional colors were used to create shadow on her skin. I used a combination of Hooker’s Green, Perinone Orange, Cobalt Violet Light and in the final stages Mediterranean Blue.

I painted her hair after the skin colors dried a little. My subject’s hair is captured with a mix with Ultramarine Blue Deep with Burnt Umber – I also used Hooker’s Green in the sunlit areas.

The background of my painting is a rough mix of Raw Umber Violet and Yellow Ochre Light with Hooker’s Green and Cobalt Teal Blue. In the final stages, I adjusted the whole image with Cobalt Violet Light.

“Diana” by Chihiro Yabe