Small portrait

I was doing some research for my Baba paintings and found some old photos that I found really interesting. I think this is a family member from Russia. I painted this small 5x7 inch acrylic painting from a black and white photo. I used strectched canvas and painted a bright warm red as a base. I also gave her a yellow pencil... not from the time... she had an ink pen and ink jar... but I wanted to add some yellow warmth to the image. Hmmmm.... was it wrong? or could this be like a game... what does not belong in the picture? (Where's Waldo-ish?)

Onion color lesson

I wanted to go over color options in my adult class. 

I set up some onions in a still life and did these demos.

The first demo I did was as a value study with just one color.

The next one on the right was done with just two colors.

The third one was done with what we thought were realistic colors.

And the fourth done with more intensity and exaggerated colors.

 I did this to show the students that exaggerating the colors really makes a painting interesting and fun.

I wanted them to step out of their safe zone and explore colors that they wouldn't normally choose.

These are about 3 x 5 inches each.