Portrait 7/100

 

I worked several days on this one in bits and pieces of time. I was inspired by the reference photo (thank you to Lillith May on the Museum by sktchy app), because it reminded me of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring, one of my favorite paintings. I'm guessing that Lilith intended that, but not sure. This cool reference added a lot of fun to my painting process, even though the end result needs magic to match the Vermeer loveliness.

The following is a series of photos from that process. I premixed piles of paint, finding a shadow and light color for each side of her face and for her forehead. I did the same for her headband and clothes, after which I made a drawing in oil paint with a bit of gamsol. From there onward, I applied patches of paint where I thought they should go and happily got lost in the process. I count it as a win that I didn't scrape it back in frustration at the halfway mark.

Portrait 6/100

 

This is an 8x6" oil painting of my daughter with our two cats. Because the face area is so small, I struggled to get her features right. 

My idea with this painting was to sketch it out, then figure out a dark and a light for each main thing. For instance, a dark green shadow and a light green for the blanket, then a dark and light for the shirt, etc. After blocking in with these main values, I added in more subtle differences in color. As you can see in the process pics below, I wiped out most of the painting at one point and then started again the next day. Although the wiping out was mainly an act of frustration, it provides a great starting point to begin again with a panel that is no longer overloaded with paint.

Portrait 5/100

 

This is the son of a friend. The background in the reference photo was a little chaotic, so I simplified it with this gradation of green that marries well with his coat color and stands as a good complement to his hat. The light and shadow shapes of his face were not so obvious here, other than the spotlight on his cheek, so I just tried to get the right color and value in each little patch. By the way, an app called ChromaMagic is a very useful tool for color picking. I use it a lot.

Here are some process images. It's amazing how dark the skin tones appear at first, before any background color is added. As I painted this, I thought how it might look better if the ball at the top of his hat were bigger and went off the panel. Maybe right, maybe wrong--either way, it was fun to make this design decision that went beyond the reference photo.

Portrait 4/100

 

Portrait 4/100! I used imitation gold leaf on this one. To figure out where I wanted the gold leaf (in the background), I initially sketched out the portrait in yellow acrylic.

 

Then I added a quinacridone magenta transparent layer (also acrylic) on top of that (because I like it, and because I knew that it would peek through some of the gold leaf and the portrait itself). 

After that dried, I painted some GAC100 acrylic medium in the background area and pressed some foil on top. 

Next day I wiped off the un-stuck foil and painted the portrait in oil paint. 

I like the gold leaf. What do you think? 

The reference photo comes via the patreon of Bryce C Liston (thank you to Bryce and model Sarah).

Portrait 3/100

 

Portrait 3/100! The reference photo comes via the museum app (thank you to LJ Bridge), where you can find lots of great photos to paint from. I loved the cropping in the reference, although I added a bit more of the green cap to the top to extend her head upward. Otherwise, this is a pretty direct copy of the reference. I tried to get the features accurate while keeping the appearance of interesting brush strokes. However, I wondered what else I should do as an artist? Should I bring detail to some parts and subordinate others? I definitely spent more attention on the face, then the hair, then the clothes, so I did make some of these decisions subconsciously. But I wonder what bigger decisions I could have made so the painting would look more like a painting and less like a copy of a reference? Maybe I'll have answer by portrait 100!

I used a palette of Hansa yellow, yellow ochre, napthol red, ultramarine blue, and titanium white. 8x6” gessoed thin mdf panel.

Here is a photo compilation of the stages, in case you're interested:

Portrait 2/100

 

Portrait 2/100! Making progress. 

In making this portrait, I had just watched a video by Sarah Sedwick in which she used a limited palette for a portait, and so I tried out her colors (except I used a different red) and made piles of paint similar to hers. My palette had yellow ochre, napthol red, ultramarine blue, and titanium white. 

The necklace had some brilliant blue/turquoise stones in it, which was pretty hard to convey with this palette. This painting took several hours, most of which was in the ugly stage, but I think it came together in the end. Check out the video montage for the in between stages.

The reference photo comes via the patreon of @bcliston (thank you to Bryce and model Sarah). 8x6” heavyweight paper, twice gessoed, plus a top coat of GAC100 added to make it less dry. The surface ended up a bit slippery, but I liked it better than painting right on top of gesso, which sucks up too much paint.

Portrait 1/100

Here is the first painting in my year-long 100-portrait personal painting challenge. I want to paint very informally in these portraits, quickly sketching them out with paint and then mushing paint around until it looks about right. Or perhaps I will try out different painting approaches, such as making an imprimatura first? In this portrait, I took the paint mushing approach, as you can see in the video. The reference photo comes via the patreon of Bryce C Liston (thank you to Bryce and model Alisa). The painting itself took a little over an hour, but the video editing took more, including my soul. I will probably avoid this exact method of documentation in the future, which will make the painting part much more manageable, too.

8x6” heavyweight paper, twice gessoed and so darn dry. Next time I will add a coating of GAC100 to prevent so much soaking in of the oil paint. It's all an experiment!