Study of Frida Kahlo - A Portrait in Oil

Underpainting for Portrait of Frida Kahlo - unfinished

Last night I started two underpaintings. My intention was to work on finishing the Cheetah Girl Portrait, but the layers weren't dry enough to add new color. I didn't want to muck up the work I had alredy done on it, so I decided to start a new underpainting. I actually started *two* of them, but the one I'm going to talk about in this post is the Frida Kahlo portrait.

I would rather be creative in my work than realistic, but I'm not sure how to do that yet. I think that if I wait around until I get a good idea, nothing will get done - so in the meantime, I'm going to just study Frida Kahlo's face.

In my own personal opinion, Frida Kahlo was a beautiful woman. She wasn't attractive by the standards that society set for women, (to *me* she was) but her spirit and transparency made her rare. She was unique in her art, beliefs, dress and physical appearance. I've decided to try to capture her real features in this underpainting. The photo that I'm using as a reference is a black and white picture of her that I found in a music video. I hope that when the underpainting dries and I'm ready to glaze on the colors, I'll have that spark of creativity that I've been waiting for. I hope that what I learn in this study will help me to preserve the likeliness of the subjects that I choose to interpret in the future.

Maybe I should just stick with oil.



Underpainting done in Ivory Black and Payne's Grey

First layers of colors glazed on using Liquin.

Cheetah Girl, in progress    Karina Prado

I had purchased oil paints a few months ago with the intention of experimenting with them and taking a break from acrylics. I hadn't used oils for about ten years and back then I was using turpentine and linseed oil as blending mediums. I find that oils are easier to work with when I compare the process to working with acrylic paints. The blending process alone is miraculous. I like the richness and the consistency of oils. It's like my mind just remembered what to do. I should also add that I find the smell of oil paint amazing. I think that I may stick with them for now, since the experience was so enjoyable and less frustrating for me.

¡Feliz cumpleaños, Frida Kahlo!



Tributo a Frida, unfinished by Karina Prado


Frida Kahlo is one of my greatest inspirations.

She was beautiful, brilliant, courageous, talented, dynamic and free. Her art is so real, raw and striking to me. When I see her work, I am speechless at the subject matter and other times, I feel that she is staring at me in her self portraits, inviting me into the world as she saw it. She was steadfast in her beliefs and did what she wanted. I will always see her as a woman ahead of her time.

RAW Artist: Karina Prado

I just found out that my work was accepted for the August 16th show of RAW: Natural Born Artists here in Austin, Texas. The show is called "Radiate" and will be showcased at The Parish on Sixth Street.

I'd better get busy with the new pieces. My friend Kanokwalee has a great idea about a theme.

Here's the link to my artist profile at RAW and the show details.

http://www.rawartists.org/karinaprado

Willie Nelson

My friend Renee and I were walking around in downtown Austin, when she pointed out the Willie Nelson statue to me. At that moment, I thought it would be a great idea to transform my old coffee farmer painting into Willie Nelson. He's a big deal in Austin.