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| His ear, his nose, his beard, the transition between him and his son., today's area of concentration. I think he's got a point incisor, a little bit too much Count Dracula for me. |
I painted an ear lobe, a nose, a beard, a connective passage between two faces and I'm not done. With painting, like construction, one part has an effect on others, (joinery is everything). With painting, I'm always correcting the drawing, balancing color values, hardening or softening edges. With construction, all of that gets worked out before-hand on papers that are disposable. Construction is easier than painting alla prima.
Then I took a photograph of the woods behind the house. It was all different shades, albeit values, of green. Green is the hardest color to mix exactly right. Sometimes, I think there aren't enough green paints on the market to reproduce the greens we see in nature. Green would be a challenging painting challenge. Am I up to it? Are you up to it? Might be interesting to try if you have some time? Tired of working closely on Steve's nose, I'm going to try it tomorrow as a long warm up. Color values are the most challenging of the elements in a painting; they are worth a lot of effort.
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I really like the painting. It's like his personality shines through.
ReplyDeleteThanks Agnes. I hope work hasn't done you in. I'm missing your great photography.
DeleteI'm glad you commented, or else I wouldn't have caught the weird looking post I posted. Now, all is fine thanks to you.
The boys are looking great! And that photo is spectacular, and looks like a bugger to paint! :)
ReplyDeleteI'm at the go slowly part, the refining features part, the steady hand part. It's a bit trying. I'm finding I'm talking to myself while working on it.
DeleteI took the photo at four thirty with the sun in the West. You can detect the gold of Fall creeping into the green. Sitting on the deck studying those greens, I saw a lot of the palest pink on the undersides of the leaves as the wind flipped them about. This one, you do fast without thinking and mix the values on the canvas. I said it was a challenge, but trees are easy. Green vases or bottles are not.
Couple of dovetail joints and a mortice & tenon? Love the analogy. Watching developments with interest.
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed with how much black there is in foliage ... it's hard to get it exactly right, I find.
All of us do, yet that's because we think we have to get foliage exactly as we see it. We'd don't. Foliage is like clouds--fluffy. Getting the light right is what counts. If you look closely, that black is a deep, deep 'hunter's green.' I had a car that color once. I adored it. On gray days, you thought it was black. Then the sun would come out and there would be a deep green shimmer. Stunning.
DeleteStill working hard, still making wonders and, yes, the shiny spirit, the humor... I've missed you big time :)
ReplyDeleteDad and Son looking greater by the post-so admire your patience! I so enjoyed your alla prima still life! Your Angela Sargent charcoal sketch is my favorite, love it!!
Warm gree(k)tings and a big hug.
(back to setting of the house now, that's an art too-or so I say to myself just to trick me)
I'm at the patience the part.I think I missed something thought. I may be getting too detailed? I may have gone past gesture painting into formal portraiture? Old dog can't shake loose. Angela Sargent is actually Mrs. Sears. I wonder if she was the Sears of Sears Roebuck department store fame and fortune? I'd bet so. Sargent was a social climber. Portrait painters have to be. Who else can pay them the prices required for work that takes longer than a day or three?
DeleteGo easy on that house and yourself now. It does get done a little a day without knocking you onto the couch for a week for overdoing. I have a good stretch for sciatica in case:-)
Great work on your son's portrait...looking good!
ReplyDeleteHere in Oregon are surrounded by green...green....green. I paint green a lot and I sometimes wish I lived in Arizona so that I could make those peachy paintings that emanate from there. It would be such a relief from all the green. I'll be watching to see what you paint from this photo. :)
There are such subtle variations out there plein air--all shades and tints of green, but also silver gray and pinks. Frustration sets in quickly. Your greens are greener than our greens now. There's gold creeping in. Plein air painting has the problem of shifting light every fifteen minutes. Photographs have the problems of mechanical translations.
DeleteI hope you come back and see this. I posted a comment on your blog and it was immediately rejected. I also sent you an e-mail; that was returned to sender as well. Here's what was said:
Delete: can't create user output file. Command output: procmail:
Error while writing to
"/var/spool/mail/celeste@aracnet.com/tmp/1347547713.14106_0.nitrogen.spiritone.com"
procmail: Quota exceeded while writing "/var/mail/celeste"
I have no idea what it means. I hope everything is good with us and this is just computer service biz.
Dear Linda, you work hard every day. I think that the portraits in oil and acrylic are very dificult. You make them very well. And when you love someone is delicious to mek portrait. Congratulations, you are a great artist. Big hugs.
ReplyDeleteun abrazo to you too for your kind words Eva. Portraiture is a struggle. I am waiting for the day I think it's easy. That's when I will have achieved some degree of ease and mastery.
DeleteThese portraits are truly wonderful Linda!! Almost like a photo!! You should be incredibly proud of yourself....love this picture as well...I'll miss it when winter comes!!!
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem with it. I'm still copying a photograph. I haven't interpreted the photo. This is my objective. But thank you.
DeleteToday, there was even more red in the leaves. Sad.
You seem to reach every goal you set and I am sure you do it with this one too... make it work. =)
ReplyDeleteThis is not good. This is not where I want to go. But that's the way it goes with forging a new path for yourself. Thank you for your as always's encouraging words Roger.
DeleteLinda, this is nicely and thoughtfully done. I admire your persistence and your patience. I seem to have less and less of those qualities with respect to painting as time goes by. I am not going to fight it - I wil embrace it and see where it takes me.
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