The Dreaded Portrait ... or ... More New Skills to Learn

John, one of my brothers-in-law

The sketch

Yesterday's work/play

This morning

   

   It is bucketing rain. I am sure Bruno is soaked by now [ it wasn't raining when I fed him breakfast ] or slimed with mud, head to tail. So considering all that, it's a perfect day to paint.

   I've wanted to do a portrait of John for a long time, but basically I wasn't sure I could do a reasonable job of it. Well, enough of THAT attitude. My reasons for wanting to paint him - he's a good-looking man, he doesn't think I can do it, it's his birthday soon, and he just got a huge promotion with a new bank.

   So here I am, trying new things. I am painting almost vertically on an easel. I am painting in a much looser style. I almost tried colors I don't normally use, like yellow ochre, but I thought that was going a bit too far; I'm staying with my transparent pigments. It's been exciting in a watercolory sort of way, watching the paints mingle in different ways on the easel. I almost had to force myself to use it [it's so unfamiliar ] but I'm hooked now. I picked up a MOST useful bit of information from a video clip of Paul McCormack on Jerry's Artarama; it's very important for portraits, I think. Make a color swatch of the mixes you will be using - light, mid, and dark values. Prepare the sample as you would for the portrait, so the whole piece painted with the light value, then glaze on the mid-range [ the local color ] and then the shadow color. Keep the swatch to test any other glazes you will need later on in the painting.
   Anyway, I know the portrait looks rough right now, but I have great hopes for it! And as always, all comments and questions are most welcome.