Dana in Acrylic
28 October, 1986
My love for her never goes away, I just ignore it when we don’t need it. The moment her mouth breathed into mine, she asked me to find it, and I knew right where to go. It wasn’t hidden, it was in the middle of all my thoughts: an obstacle I’d navigated around with such agility for so long that I’d created an island out of it. Through stormy years of lament, I’d nourished that island until it was teeming with life. It was the only thing alive inside me anymore, I knew it.
The rumbling in me felt catastrophic, which was a familiar way to feel around Dana. She could make me believe extinction was eminent; and tell me that I needed to feel her more deeply than the cosmos, because she would be the last thing I ever felt. That night, I wanted her to be my final sensation, for my waxen body to slowly die against the warmth of her, and flood the barren lakes across her landscape. That was how I wanted to go, I wanted to melt for her, as I should have done when she’d asked me to all those years before.
Process
This was my very first attempt at a portrait in regular acrylic. Allegedly, you can glaze with them. I’m going to need practice with that.
Things I think I did well
- The background is pretty cool
- Her curls are looking nice. The hair was dark-to-light which was the right choice
- Generally her face is okay, glad I realised the ear was too low before I finished
Things I think I didn’t do well
- The glazing needs to go over the entire thing I think? There are too many striated borders, gotta figure out why
- Anatomy, as always: more shadow under the chin, darker shadows everywhere really, more neck definition
- If I wanted the right side of her hair to be ‘in shadow,’ I should have done it more dramatically, it just kind of looks unfinished at this point
