Continuing to work on a couple of portraits. The first is an update on the portrait of Dr. Hinkie that I shared a couple of weeks ago. I have a couple of studio days of work in on this one now. Obviously there’s still a very long way to go but there’s enough of the head blocked in now that you can start to see where it will be going.
Very excited for the next session when I can start getting into the light-mass properly. Normally I like to start with either the lightest light on the form or the darkest dark and gradate across the from from there. However, as a right-handed painter it’s also most comfortable to start from the left side of the form and work my way across just for the mechanical fact that my working hand isn’t covering (or worse dragging through the wet paint of) the previous work. Looking forward to making it over to the light on the right cheek. Hopefully there won’t be too much requisite shifting of values after that is stated, but that’s the risk of not starting with a local maximum.
This is still something of a new process for me; at the Academy we were taught to work the entire surface of the image altogether. So I’m still getting used to the idea of working with the intent of completeness on a specific area and moving across the form from there.
There are still drawing issues that I need to resolve and there’s not enough paint down to really work up the edges of the forms but it still feels like this way of working allows you to stay closer to the original drawing as you work through the image. I feel like the likeness was there from the start and I haven’t had to go through the normal process of losing the drawing and struggling to re-find it over the course of the painting.
I’m sure there are some advantages to working all-over and not trying to lock things in place on the first pass, but for portraits I’m really enjoying pulling these very solid forms out of the background as I work.
I wanted to get some of the “old master green” on the support to get a sense for how it was going to work with the red (alizarin crimson) of the shirt. I think it’s going to complement it nicely as the cool purplish undertones of that hue don’t clash with the deep green. Not sure how much that rich dark emerald color is coming through in the photo, but it really is a beautiful color. I’m also not sure about the “window” element in the corner of the painting, I may need to do a few small studies to get a feel for it first. That is the type of thing that working all-over would help to resolve more quickly.
The head is feeling solid and volumetric to me which is really what I’m going for at this point. I’ll be able to get the drawing locked in and build up more texture in subsequent layers but that’s going to be a ways off yet. More to come.
The other portrait I worked on this weekend was one that I skipped on last week. I have a handful of painting going right now, which is probably too many given that I really can only put in full studio days on the weekends.
This is a portrait of Theo that I’ve been working on for a bit now and how it worked at the start of the session. Most of the major forms are blocked in and I’ve got a background pattern that I’m enjoying. It was time to really buckle down and paint in the shirt. I’ve been putting this off as it was going to be a lot of work.
Full day of painting plaid… no idea how why I let him get away with wearing plaid for this.
Next up I need to work on the scroll and pegs of the violin as well as the end of the bow. After that I think I’ll back in to restate the background and get some of the wonky-ness of the circles resolved. Then it’s a matter of pushing the rendering of the subject as much as I am capable. Should be at least one more good pass at each of the hands as well as the violin and probably two more passes at the face and hair.
Still a good ways to go on this one, but it probably over the half-way point now.
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