© Katie Jeanne Wood
Marilyn Monroe
Oil portrait painting
I took the Marilyn Monroe portrait painting down from the drying shelf yesterday to finish working on it. I had left it up there longer than necessary because I kinda knew what was going to happen. I know said I wasn’t going to work on it much more in my last post, but it took all of 3 minutes, and I was already getting overly fussy with her hair. Five minutes in, and I could feel the weight of the struggle beginning to form within my body. Tension, overwhelm, and stress. Ack!
I spent a couple hours on it, and still couldn’t get it to my liking. My patience with myself for trying to be a perfectionist was wearing thin. I kept asking myself why I was trying to paint in every little curl. What happened to being loose, and carefree?
I was so annoyed until finally I said..enough! I knew exactly what I was doing wrong, and how to make it right. So, I put down the brushes, grabbed a palette knife, turned my phone off, so I couldn’t stare at the reference photo any longer, and I proceeded to make the painting my own. It was finished just like that. Problem solved.
I didn’t realize Marilyn had 3 “spots” on her left side until I started painting her. I guess the one on her face would be called a “beauty mark”. I’m not sure if the other two are moles and/or freckles. Are they fake or real? No idea. My guess is one is real, and two are fake.
I really like how the painting turned out. I can see from the photos I have a couple places I need to touch up, but other than that, it’s finished. I’ll be offering it for sale once it’s dry enough to ship in 3 to 5 weeks. Have a lovely weekend. I hope to be back here next week with more updates.
If you’d like to see how this Marilyn Monroe painting transformed over time, you can look back at this post, and this one.
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It’s the perfect time to freshen up your walls for the new fall season, so be sure to check out my eBay store. I’m listing original paintings at low starting bids. Remember to click the ❤️ to save me as a favorite seller, so you don’t miss out.
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