Why I Painted It
I was inspired to try painting portraits by several artists on the About Painting Forum. My first tries weren't memorable, but, with practise, tips from these members and reading for advice I think I came up with a portrait that I learned much from and really enjoyed doing. It was a huge challenge and I wasn't sure I could complete it, until, one day, it was done ! I painted from a good photograph, but had the real model (my husband) around to look at whenever I needed to check on something.
What I Love About This Painting
I love the excitement of seeing a three dimensional face emerging from the canvas. In this case, the fact that it was one familiar to me made me even more eager to get to the final stage, but I had to go through some fancy dancing on the canvas before I was able to get there! Sadly, the painting is no longer with me, as my husband's mom fell in love with it and asked to have it - but it's nice to know that it's being appreciated. I have a lot to learn yet, and this may not be my best portrait, but it's definitely one of my favourites and one that I learned much from!
Tips and Tricks
- I learned how difficult it is to start a portrait without a really accurate sketch. I had been using the grid method, but decided to try this one without it this time. It took a lot of work to get all the features correctly placed and I discovered that a small change of 2mm in the placement of the eyeball made a huge difference!
- I followed some good advice about using sap green under the skin tones in shadow areas. I don't always remember to do this but whenever I look at my photo of this portrait it reminds me to think about underpainting before rushing ahead with final skin tones.
