A Long Road Traveled (The Preacher) - A Portrait

With almost 20 hours on this portrait, I think I've reached an end.   It's on canvas taped to a board, so in a few days...maybe this weekend, I'll decide on a final size and stretch it.  I wouldn't be surprised if I find a few more things to tweak, but for now, I'm done. Time to sign it. 

If you love to paint portraits, this is the kind of subject you wait and wait for. What a wonderful face.   In the high quality photo reference that I used, the colors in this gentleman's skin are amazing.  There are golds and reds and oranges and the highlights are amazing blues.  The biggest challenge is not to get too caught up in all that wonderful color and let the painting become a patchwork quilt- beautiful but not unified.  That wasn't easy.  The other issue for me was maintaining the overall darkness of the face, even though on close examination so much of it is beautiful bold color.  I used a lot of what I learned from Suchitra Boshle on the control of values and I think it helped.  (http://suchitrabhosle.com/)  Although I've only had a few sessions with Suchitra, I've become acutely aware of values in portrait painting, thanks to her instruction and example.  I've drawn on another teacher, Dan Edmondson, as well.  (http://www.danieledmondson.com/)  All through this painting, Dan's admonition to "Make beautiful brushstrokes" has been constantly in mind.  I've resisted smoothing and 'licking' - as much as I can! - and instead I've consciously struggled to maintain brush strokes by mixing a color, applying it and leaving it alone.   I'm trying Dan, I'm trying!

But above all I hope I have captured the warm and gentle spirit of this man that shines through in the photo reference...

Here's the final portrait....(The whites behind the head slightly to the left are not there....I continue tos stuggle to get faithful photographs. sigh) 

A Long Road Traveled   Oil on linen   20 x 16 approx. 

Below are some notes and a picture of The Preacher in progress.
At that point I've got about 12 - 15 hours in it:

I'm nearing the end, but I'd like to let it sit and set-up for awhile before I make the final finishing strokes.  I'll add highlights to the crown of the head and a few other spots like the bridge of the nose.  It's amazing how that can add dimension and life to a portrait.  It's also amazing how easy it is to overdo it and mess up the whole thing!  I can see that the tip of the nose needs more modeling so I'll spend some time there.  I may also continue to tweak the background a bit.  Generally I'll drag it into the head to lose edges here and there, but perhaps not in this painting. In fact, I may try to push the background away to make the head come forward, increasing the three dimensional effect. Finally, stepping away for a bit and looking at photographs of the painting is a great way to see drawing errors and areas that need more work.  But it's almost complete so I'd though I'd show a WIP (work in progress) photo.  (Not to mention that I need something to POST!) 

The Preacher WIP  oil on linen approx. 20 x 16

and here is my oil sketch 'block in'

The Preacher  WIP  Initial Block In  Oil on linen

My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

Suchitra's Model #2 Portrait

 I had the good fortune to spend another studio session with Suchitra Bhosle a week ago.  I've posted about painting with Suchitra before, so I won't go into it again, except to say that it is always a challenging and energizing experience.   Once again, I felt a bit like a child with his first finger paint set, except I wasn't nearly so free and unconstrained!  Values, values, values.  I learn a bit more each time about values. 

 My painting of the model was not especially good.  When I started, I felt that I was on the right track, but time was short.  For some reason, after about an hour, I felt completely lost.  The drawing felt completely out of control, and I realized my mind was a jumble of conflicting thoughts.  Once again I wiped my canvas down and determined to start again.  I'm not any more comfortable doing that than I have ever been - it always feels like defeat to me - but I've begun to realize that if I do not have a plan and if I am not careful and methodical in the beginning, there is very little likelihood of rescuing the painting no matter how long I dabble and poke at it.  Better to wipe it down and THINK.  Anyway, the remaining time wasn't enough to take the painting to any level of finish and I left with yet another panel to pile up in a stack somethere.

After letting it sit for a week, I decided to see if I could bring the painting to a higher degree of finish and at the same time, identify and work through some of the problems I had left unresolved.  Fortunately I'd taken some pictures at the very end of the session, so I had important reference material as a guide.

This is Suchitra's model #2 (of course, I've forgotten her name!).  I would guess that there is about five hours total in this small canvas, counting the 1 1/2 - 2 hours spent in the studio session.  I feel that I learned a lot by finishing up this portrait and I have a much nicer feeling of completion.

Suchitra's Model #2   Oil on 12" x 9" panel 

 


My Art Site: Bruce Hancock Fine Art

Suchitra's Model

Another challenging yet so rewarding session with Suchitra Bhosle today.  I didn't catch the model's name, but she was an attractive young lady and novice model.  Suchitra had a pretty full house and I had a head-on portrait view.  I used a raymar linen panel with one coat of oil primer.  Honestly I didn't care for it that much.  It felt a little rough to me, and the early brush strokes dragged and the paint seemed hard to apply.  More and more I'm becoming aware of the painting surface.  I think an additional coat of oil primer would probably make the panel more suitable for my tastes.

Once again, I struggled with Suchitra's method of working with subtle values, but after a rocky start I felt it beginning to come together.  By the end of the session, I was feeling more comfortable with the process.  There is much to learn from Suchitra, and I look forward to many more sessions with her.

Suchitra's Model  Oil on linen panel  9" x 12"

Kiersten

This afternoon, I joined Suchitra Bhosle and several other painters in Suchitra's studio.  Our portrait model was a very beautiful young woman named Kiersten.  This was my second session with Suchitra, and this time I felt that I began to understand her approach.  She emphasizes "true' values and their intrinsic interrelationship.  It's hard for me to put into words...and for awhile, even harder to capture with a brush, but slowly I begin to understand.  At first, the painting seemed dull, with a gray cast to the skin that was very difficult to accept.  But I resisted throwing in my traditional skin tones and stuck to the program.  I tried to meticulously judge the value and temperature of each brushstroke to the preceding brushstroke, and to my utter amazement, it began to work.  I'm very pleased with the result. 
 
Interestingly, for me at least, was that the 'value approach' also changed the way I painted this portrait fundamentally.   Normally, I make a fairly detailed brush drawing on the canvas and then begin to put in darks, midtones and lights.  In this case, I did nothing more than establish a general oval of the face, and a vertical and horizontal 'cross' to get the tilt and placement of the eyes.  At that point, I started putting down values once by one, in essence drawing with the values rather than with lines.  The head grew outward from the eye sockets, in a sense.  Very different for me. 

I can't wait for the next session with Suchitra.

Kiersten   Oil on stretched canvas   12" x 16"