Friday, March 25, 2011

Father update

 Robert William Barber
1920-1990


I've worked more on this today as I had the day off due to a late spring snowstorm. I've added more definition and smoothing of features with thin layers of oils.  The hair is...I'm not sure yet.  His hair wasn't grey even at 70 years of age, just a touch at the sides and always kept military short. Conveying that is not as easy as I thought as the scalp shows through as an undertone almost.

I think I'm going to leave the face as is, but give more definition to the clothing.  He was sitting forward in this piece and I don't have the photo anymore so I need to recreate how the jacket will look in that position for light and creases, etc.  I'll set up a jacket in a similar position tomorrow and work from that.  Everything can be recreated when needed.


I still can't seem to get a decent photo of this painting despite tweaking camera and photo editing.  I think the colours are close at this point, but images on monitors are never perfect. 

4 comments:

Angelsdoor * Penny said...

Just beautiful Jeanette.. A wonderful tribute to your father. He has such kind eyes and very expressive. Makes me wonder what he was thinking at that moment.
Outstanding work..
Wishing you a beautiful weekend
Blessings,
Penny

A Brush with Color said...

Oh, Jeanette, these are marvelous! I hadn't seen you were working on this and had time this weekend to go "browsing" and caught them. You have such a fine touch with everything you do. And I always know you catch a real likeness, because I've seen you do your own self-portraits, so I can say with confidence that I see the resemblance here, too!

irinapictures said...

This is pure genius work of art and feeling.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Penny, thank you.Its good that it makes others see some of his personality.

Sue, yes we are similar facially, which makes it a bit odd to paint him, as there's some of me in it too.

Irina, thanks for your kind words. There is something about portraits - that moment when you see the person appear out of the canvas, that is magical.