Today's portrait model was a beautiful Korean girl named Minji. She posed for us wearing the Hanbok, the traditional formal Korean attire. What a great opportunity and I blew it on several counts.
First, I knew our model was posing in something special, and I might want to paint the full figure rather than just a shoulders-up portrait. Knowing this I should have brought a large canvas. I brought 16x20, which is simply not large enough, because at this size, her head is only about an inch and that is waaaaaayyyy too small to try to put any kind of detail. It made it extremely difficult to capture her beautiful features at all.
Second, I forgot to bring my camera. This was the perfect situation to start with the live model, and finish details of costume, background, etc. from photos later. Having no camera, I was forced to simply try to capture what I could in our limited painting time.
So, lesson learned. Come prepared, or, change plans. I should have probably just done the portrait, not the whole figure, but the Hanbok is such a lovely dress, I wanted to try to capture it. Still, having made my plan and refusing to change it, the result is pretty much nothing. I couldn't capture her face because it is too small, and I oculdn't capture the details of her costume because there is simply not enough time in one session. So, I'm disappointed.
But, lest we take ourselves too seriously, here is a fun little video about portrait painting. This guy makes it look easy!
