Oil Portrait ...

I'm putting the finishing touches on an oil portrait, shown above. This was a joy to work on - I loved the pose and expression. I hope to varnish in the next week and then get a high resolution scan.

Next I have a portrait commission in pastel, and then I want to do something in colored pencil. Working  in various media keeps me on my toes!

What is a Portrait Painting?

Many people ask whether I work from photographs or from live sittings. The truth is that I would love to work from live sittings, but real life makes working from photos more feasible in most cases. However, I do not merely "copy" these photos. The point of a portrait is to capture the essence of the subject, which is always my goal in each painting. A photograph, on the other hand, is a snapshot in time, and can be very limiting in terms of illustrating one's true self.

When I take reference photos, I try and get to know the subject (if I do not already), and take hundreds so that I have plenty of material from which to paint the final portrait. The portrait is usually based on one or two photos only, but having many gives me more insight into one's personality. Here are couple of portraits and their reference photos that demonstrate how I've gone beyond the photo.

Getting there...

Portrait In (Slow) Progress

I've made some refinements here, and toned down the chair quite a bit. I still have a lot of work to do, especially on the sweater, hands, chair, and minor refinements elsewhere. I'm working only about 2 hours per day, and only a few days per week on this one... so progress is slow!

New Painting in Progress

Here are two snapshots of a painting on my easel. I started with an underpainting using burnt umber and thinned out with turpentine (I use Shiva Signa-Turp), and then started painting thicker layers. I still need additional layer(s) of paint on the chair to tone it down and refine, as well as the socks, hands, sweater, pants, and maybe some refinements to the face.

Father Son Portrait Completed

I am calling this piece done. The snapshot is a little blurry, but I basically added more depth to the background and cleaned up/refined areas such as the father's head and arm. The painting is 20x16, and closeup you can really see the brush strokes - it's not as "photorealistic" as it might appear on the computer screen.

Next I am going to do a mother/son portrait (self portrait!), of the same size and similar color scheme. I will also post the final image of this father/son portrait once it is varnished and scanned.

More work on Father and Son portrait

Here I've begun to paint the father's face (though you can see that the ear is still very rough), and have done more work on the arm and shirt. My plan is to bring everything else up to a similar level of doneness (including the background), and then I will go back and refine further.

On my easel

Above is a snapshot of the portrait currently on my easel - 14x18, oil on board. I don't usually keep track of how many hours each painting or drawing takes, but so many people ask, so this time I did. In terms of pure painting time (not including several hours of planning, sketching, and sometimes just staring at the painting looking for problems), this has taken 21 hours.

Kevin - Completed

Below is the completed oil portrait of Kevin (I will probably take a better photo later). Kevin is actually an artist himself, working in various media including drawing and pottery (and yes, he did design the pendant he is wearing!) He is working on a website, and I will post it as soon as it is available.

Kevin - Progress 9

Oil painting is such a slow process for me, since I am still so new to the medium. Anyway, after about another couple of hours work today (I've been too distracted with other things to give this portrait a full-day's work) I have adjusted the background and smoothed out the shirt a bit. Tomorrow I'll make minor adjustments, and hopefully sign it.

Kevin - Progress 8

Here I've done a little bit more adjusting to the skin tones, but I now see that the background is very distracting. Sometimes I like bold backgrounds, but this just isn't one of those times. I'm going to tone it down next, and then work on the shirt and necklace.

Kevin - Progress 7

The skin tones are better now that I've toned them down a bit. Next I'll be cleaning up and fine tuning.

Kevin - Progress 6

I've done a little bit more work in the photo here, and the next step is to tone down the ruddiness and orange tint, especially on the left hand side of his face. I've actually started this process, but I want to get more done before posting a progress photo. Painting over the entire face is difficult because I want to tone down certain areas, while maintaining general facial contours already in place.

Kevin - Progress 5

Getting there... I'm still not happy with the background, and the shirt obviously still needs detail. I'll do that next, and then re-evaluate the piece as a whole.

Kevin - Progress 4

Continuing on with the portrait of Kevin... the shadow under the eye on the right is still too harsh, so I'll be toning that down next. I will also be adding texture to the shirt and necklace, while adding more layers of paint to the background.

Kevin - Progress 3

Here I've blocked in more color, and now I have a lot of refining to do in the face. I tend to use a lot of red and orange in the early stages and then tone it down later on (almost like adding skin on top of the flesh).

Kevin - Progress 2

Adding more of the background and shirt definitely helped, but I have a lot more work to do...

Kevin - Work in Progress

I started an oil portrait recently trying an Ampersand panel designed for oil painting. I really like the fine texture of the board, and I'm not missing the "give" of traditional canvas working on this panel.

This is in a rough phase still, especially the edges, forehead, and right side of his face. I need to finish blocking in the background and color of the shirt so I can better judge the edges and skin tones. 

Eliza Jayne

And here is the completed portrait I was working on in the photo in a previous post.

Happily Painting...