Marilyn Monroe portrait painting

Katie Jeanne Wood
Marilyn Monroe portrait painting
WIP

I was flipping through a book last night, which is filled with photos of beautiful women, and for some reason I got the sudden urge to paint Marilyn Monroe. It’s gonna be hotter than blazes for the next couple days before it plummets into the 70s and even 60s (brr!), so I figured what else do I have to do? 

WIP
Still wondering if I should switch to oils
because skin tones are so much richer,
and easier to blend
when using oil paint.
Not sure yet. 

The photo in the book is black & white, which leaves me to figure out the colors for myself. I tried finding the photo online in color, but wasn’t successful. 

Over the summer, I ended the long portrait series I worked on for years. I needed some closure because otherwise, it would have gone on forever. I wasn’t sure if I was done with portraits for good at the time or not. Lately, I’ve been questioning how I could walk away, especially since my portraits sell better than anything else I paint.

Sooo, I’ve been thinking about doing smaller portrait series..like maybe 5 to 15 paintings. I want to title each series, and not just paint without some sort of direction or theme. I’ve been kinda waiting for inspiration or an idea to strike my fancy. Maybe this is it? 

As I was painting Marilyn, I started thinking about turning this into a series of famous women or narrowing it down more – famous women from certain decades, maybe? Like, start with the 20s, and work my way up. Then I thought, why make it just women, why not paint some men, also? 

It’s too early to tell if this is going to turn into a portrait series or not. After many months of painting abstracts, it does feel exciting to be painting a portrait again. I have stacks of 5×7 and 6×6 panels on hand, and those are my favorite sizes to use when painting portraits. Plus, I haven’t used any oil paint in months, and I miss it.

hm..the wheels are turning. We’ll see what happens.