Kass Seated Criss Cross Applesauce
Creator
Original Format
Oil on canvas
Physical Dimensions
16" x 12"
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My sister Kassidy is the subject of this painting. She is seated “criss-cross applesauce,” which made the figure more compact. This allowed me paint the full body while positioned quite close together. We are less than six feet apart, which is a significant amount given that the world is undergoing social distancing due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Painting from life is important to me because I feel like it is more conducive to learning about the figure than a photograph. Although we are quarantined, I am lucky to have a sister who is comfortable modeling for this painting. After I completed this painting, I went on to pursue self-portraits using photo references. This process is rewarding in different ways, but it is certain that painting from references is much more lonely. It is nice to have the company of a model.
I painted Kass in the room we share at home. While I am sitting on my bed painting, she is sitting on her bed in the pose. The closeness is evident in the composition because the figure goes beyond the edge of the frame. Our closeness, both physical and emotional, made it difficult for me to paint the head correctly. My familiarity with her appearance and my desire to render her likeness accurately was also a challenge.
Painting at home sparked my interest in depicting natural light on the subject. Our bedroom window casts indirect sunlight in the room for most of the day. Because of this, I was able to paint for several hours at a time with nearly the same lighting. However, natural lighting presented a challenge because the amount of light shining in the room depended heavily on whether it was sunny overcast. Because of this, I would sometimes take several days off from the painting before returning to it once it became sunny again.
My palette consisted mainly of burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, and titanium white. Burnt sienna was used to convey the tan that Kassidy has from running track and being outside often. The others were used to create cooler skin tones created by the natural lighting.
Because I live with the model, she has ample opportunity to critique the work, which can sometimes be good. She thought that she appeared wider than she actually was, which is common for models to think. It is often common for painters to create too much width in some areas, which was the case in this instance. After re-measuring during a session, I decided to add some space between the left arm and ribcage to reduce the width of the abdomen. That is visible as a dark blue stroke of color.
Also, I asked Kassidy to write about the process:
Although it was a very close-up viewpoint, I think Kee managed to pull it off. Working with the light was really hard because the weather is so variable and the time of day always had to be slightly different. I really like the colors; the warm skin tones with the blue in it. I know it was weird because my face is so dark compared to the rest of my body. It was also hard when I started school because my schedule got a lot busier. I had trouble being a model because sometimes it was really cold and I would get really restless.
I mentioned that it seems so hard to capture the face because humans have very specific mechanisms for recognizing faces. We have a part of our brain that is specifically associated with the human face because it is an extremely BLANK and important thing to us. This is why any small flaw in depicting the face can make it entirely unrecognizable while a flaw in the body would likely go undetected. I look at this painting and know without a doubt that it is me.
An interesting part of this process is reactions I receive from others when I tell them I am nude modeling for my sister, but it was the most comfortable a person could be. It was just king of neutral; your body is what it is. I also expected that when I told Keeley I thought I looked "thick," it was just how I looked and we would laugh and she'd move on. But instead she took that comment and made some adjustments and it really started to look like me.
Click here for price list
My sister Kassidy is the subject of this painting. She is seated “criss-cross applesauce,” which made the figure more compact. This allowed me paint the full body while positioned quite close together. We are less than six feet apart, which is a significant amount given that the world is undergoing social distancing due to the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Painting from life is important to me because I feel like it is more conducive to learning about the figure than a photograph. Although we are quarantined, I am lucky to have a sister who is comfortable modeling for this painting. After I completed this painting, I went on to pursue self-portraits using photo references. This process is rewarding in different ways, but it is certain that painting from references is much more lonely. It is nice to have the company of a model.
I painted Kass in the room we share at home. While I am sitting on my bed painting, she is sitting on her bed in the pose. The closeness is evident in the composition because the figure goes beyond the edge of the frame. Our closeness, both physical and emotional, made it difficult for me to paint the head correctly. My familiarity with her appearance and my desire to render her likeness accurately was also a challenge.
Painting at home sparked my interest in depicting natural light on the subject. Our bedroom window casts indirect sunlight in the room for most of the day. Because of this, I was able to paint for several hours at a time with nearly the same lighting. However, natural lighting presented a challenge because the amount of light shining in the room depended heavily on whether it was sunny overcast. Because of this, I would sometimes take several days off from the painting before returning to it once it became sunny again.
My palette consisted mainly of burnt sienna, ultramarine blue, yellow ochre, and titanium white. Burnt sienna was used to convey the tan that Kassidy has from running track and being outside often. The others were used to create cooler skin tones created by the natural lighting.
Because I live with the model, she has ample opportunity to critique the work, which can sometimes be good. She thought that she appeared wider than she actually was, which is common for models to think. It is often common for painters to create too much width in some areas, which was the case in this instance. After re-measuring during a session, I decided to add some space between the left arm and ribcage to reduce the width of the abdomen. That is visible as a dark blue stroke of color.
Also, I asked Kassidy to write about the process:
Although it was a very close-up viewpoint, I think Kee managed to pull it off. Working with the light was really hard because the weather is so variable and the time of day always had to be slightly different. I really like the colors; the warm skin tones with the blue in it. I know it was weird because my face is so dark compared to the rest of my body. It was also hard when I started school because my schedule got a lot busier. I had trouble being a model because sometimes it was really cold and I would get really restless.
I mentioned that it seems so hard to capture the face because humans have very specific mechanisms for recognizing faces. We have a part of our brain that is specifically associated with the human face because it is an extremely BLANK and important thing to us. This is why any small flaw in depicting the face can make it entirely unrecognizable while a flaw in the body would likely go undetected. I look at this painting and know without a doubt that it is me.
An interesting part of this process is reactions I receive from others when I tell them I am nude modeling for my sister, but it was the most comfortable a person could be. It was just king of neutral; your body is what it is. I also expected that when I told Keeley I thought I looked "thick," it was just how I looked and we would laugh and she'd move on. But instead she took that comment and made some adjustments and it really started to look like me.
Collection
Citation
Keeley Morton, “Kass Seated Criss Cross Applesauce,” Studio Art Majors: Senior Exhibition 2020, accessed May 9, 2024, https://seniorexhibition2020.omeka.net/items/show/34.