I was finally able to go to the portrait drawing group Friday morning. This was the first time I have driven a car since Dec. 6! It was a strange feeling being behind the wheel again.
Our model for this Friday was a retired Navy officer (sorry, I forgot his rank) named Doug. He was a delightful person, humble and soft spoken. Doug served two tours in Viet Nam, as well as later tours in other offensive actions. To me, he is a hero. It was a real honor to be able to try to paint this gentle man.
As we talked during the breaks in the portrait session, I learned that Doug was a long distance runner, and we found that we have a good friend in common. It always amazes me how these kind of connections appear out of nowhere.
I am mostly pleased with how this portrait turned out - this is about 2 hours of painting time.
2 comments:
Impressive- I especially like the skin tones and contouring you achieved, and all in 2 hours! I am still miserably slow. Is your initial massing put down quick, and at what point in the painting would you say you spend the most time?
I'm glad you were able to get behind the wheel!
Hi Judy,
I'm still experimenting with different kinds of "starts", so I can't even tell you what the "usual" is.. Sometimes I spend more time with the "drawing" part - putting down a light wash to map out the major features, and then adding color, and sometimes I lay in a sort of blank general flesh tone in the shape of the face and begin to add features from there.
This particular one I started with more of a drawing, located the shadow planes, and then tried, not terribly successfully, to put correct color brushstrokes down from the beginning. So much to learn in portraiture, but it's so much fun, isn't it?
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