I feel like I have a split personality in painting as I arrange and rearrange colours constantly at times before settling on a palette that works for me. It comes intuitively and after much knashing of teeth and pulling of hair.
Gary lives in Hawaii, so tropical and beautiful and both colour and light rich, so I wanted to reflect some of that light and colour into the portrait. Not as a background but in the skin itself. I am introducing blues, reds, greens and pale oranges into the skin and seeing how the values 'read' for me as I work my way around the portrait. I want this to be a loose more impressionistic painting. Its moving more into a style I find myself leaning towards in my work lately, despite tight paintings of fish in previous posts!
Note that I haven't completed the eyes yet. They are usually the first thing that I tackle in a portrait and I have - several times. And wiped them - several times. All will be well. Let's see what tomorrow will bring in terms of colour and light.
3 comments:
I have so much admiration for the way you incorporate specific colors into the skin tones. It really brings out the personality of your subjects, and I think it takes tremendous creativity to be able to do that as well as you do! This is going to be an awesome portrait.
Hi Jeanette,
Just got here and I'm so impressed with what your work. I'm a little curious about what you say about the eyes. Seems they're done and spot-on to me. You even perfectly captured my slightly lazy right eye.
I had surgery to fix a detached retina a couple of years ago and besides using a laser to repair the tear, a scleral buckle was installed around the eyeball. I'm not sure if that's why that eye tends to look a little bit closed or not, but you sure got it. The color looks perfect, too. I just finished watching a You Tube video showing the procedure. Wow!
Great work and I hope to have an image of your portrait Sunday or Monday. What fun!
Enjoy your Sunday, Jeanette.
Sincerely,
Gary.
Katherine, so much of my colour work is simply intuitive. I don't know if I could really explain the whys and wherefors of my palette choices. There is a freedom in working that way and when it works, it has impact...or when it doesn't - mud! :)
Thanks so much Gary, I really appreciate your input on this.
The eyes are there yes, but don't have the impact that I want yet. In portraits, the focal point seems to always be the eyes I think and I want them to be just right to fit the rest of the face and colours that I'm using.
That procedure sounds scary but effective if your sight is restored with it. That's one of the scariest things for an artist isn't it? Problems with eyesight.
Another update shortly, as I'm in painting mode with visitors out for awhile.
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