A new portrait! This portrait was quite challenging to make, because I had several things in mind before I started but didn’t exactly knew how to do them or if what I had in mind would work out the way I wanted.

First off I wanted to work with a complimentary color palette, in purple and yellow. I had seen this color combination in a tv series, a historic series on 17th century China, and there I saw a robe that was worn by a lady and the fabric had this color combination. It really struck me. It was a warm purple (or should I say violet?) combined with a warm orangish yellow color. So that’s initially what I wanted to use for this portrait.

This was also the reason why I wanted to paint an Asian woman. Not necessarily Chinese or any specific nationality, but I wanted to see if I could paint an Asian face and how that would work out. I had never done it before and it was a challenge to see if I could get some kind of emotion or expression to resonate through the face.

Another thing that I wanted to try out for this portrait, was to work with light. I am fascinated by the use of light in portraits, and it is definitely something I am exploring in my own work as well. I wanted to paint the woman in such a way that her face was darker, as if she was in some kind of darker environment, and then there is light that is shining down on her head. My idea was to make this light kind of yellow, and the rest of the portrait mostly in purple colors.

Then lastly I also wanted to work on a bit larger scale than I usually work (although I have made a few larger portraits before). This portrait is made on 35 x 42 cm (13 x 16 inch) watercolor paper.

So this is the result of this challenging journey and I am quite happy with it.

I really like the light effect, even though it is not as yellow as I had initially depicted it in my head. But it does look like light that is illuminating her head. When I look at this portrait at night, when there is hardly any artificial light, the light in this portrait is really standing out.

The face itself is also a bit different from what I often paint. You really have to look at her longer, to see what she has to tell you. She looks a bit mysterious to me. As if she is hiding and then after a while revealing parts of herself. That’s why I chose to call this portrait Veiling, Unveiling.

Veiling, Unveiling. Acrylic paint and pastel pencil on watercolor paper. 35 x 42 cm (approx. 13 x 16 inch). I have made a video tutorial of the painting process, that you can watch on my YouTube channel.