Marlowe

Marlowe Looking for Yellow   watercolor and relief ink on paper   13 x 10.5

the clown keeps showing up in my life's rhythm.  First Night Akron.  Mostly Weathervane Playhouse where we both frequent.  I was lucky enough to run into Marlowe (a.k.a. Irv Korman) a month or so ago at the theater where he was selling his two current books (also available through Amazon).  He volunteered to model for our watercolor class at Cuyahoga Valley Art Center.

Painting a clown has some distinct advantages, the most apparent being the dreaded difficulty of painting the human face made a bit easier, I think, by the cariactured features.  Two sessions.  And, in keeping with his clown alter ego, Marlowe broke the seriousness of the sessions every now and again with a bit of whimsy from his clown book of tricks. Most artists chose the full figure.  One creative chose just the splayed legs with the gigantic clown shoes as the focal area.  I chose a portrait.  The portrait was rendered in watercolor.  Although the transparent yellow background was "just fine", I chose to use relief ink in the background finally as I felt it's white chalkiness complemented the white grease paint on the face.

Painting Marlowe the clown.  Serious business.

The teardrops painted on his eye helped with the title "Marlowe Looking for Yellow".