Portraits, harder than you think.

Drawing and painting people has always been one of the weakest parts of my art so I have tended to avoid it.  Finally though I decided to take the plunge, partly as I wanted to get better and partly because my tutor Hugh Mendes specialises in portraits and it seems foolish not to make use of this fund of knowledge.  The first task was to pick subjects and so I decided to pick 2, one personal and one not.  I picked a picture of me with my grandfather Kenneth Mackenzie (below left) and a picture of Obama blowing a bubble.

I was close with my grandfather and we got on well.  This picture is when I am about 8 and in many ways captures the quality of our relationship.  The Obama picture, is just a call image.  I admire Obama but also this is compositionally a very good image and the bubble attracted me as a painting challenge.

The key is to get the canvas covered in paint.  It makes things much psychologically easier when you come in next time. In goes the back ground and the beginning of two ghostly ill looking figures.  I was pleased with rugby shirty.  I made the decision early on not to include the gold device on the shit but leave it plain.

The next week, another layer on everything.  The background thickened up and the shadows particularly on the faces evened out.  I concentrated mainly on my grandfathers face that is beginning to look more human.  I had decided to leave the glasses near the end.  It was at this point I realised the angle in the picture is slightly more face on to the viewer than the photo.  This was not a conscious decision but I decided to work with it.

Third week, another layer on the background and the difference in tone on my grandfathers face emphasised and softened my face, particularly the zombie like blobs around the eyes were blended into the rest of the face.  I also realised my hair was not big enough, it needed to come further up the picture and so this was done.  I put on the glasses which substantially changes the tone of the picture.  I realised at this point that my grandfathers face was not thick enough, a problem generally with my portrayal of people.  

Last week,  blending in more paint to the background, adding the old blob of brown and orange.  The glasses allowed me to look again at tone.  The top of my grandfather's head needed to be blended in more and more shadow added to the left side of his face.  It is all about tonal contrast.  On me light paint added to the shoulders and a greater contrast between the top and the front of the hair. More tone in the fact, particularly shadow at the bottom of the face and under the chin.

I did both paintings at the same time.  Alternating between one and the other.  This again was a good idea and on the advice of Hugh.  What I discovered was the picture of me and my grandfather was much more emotionally difficult to paint that the Obama picture.  It was more important to me that it be right, that it come out well.  The Obama piece was light relief.  The first layer though produce a picture of a fat faced John Lithgow.

The second week the horrible line of the face was corrected and the neck cut int.  If anything I went too far and made the whole thing to thin and took the chin to high.  I couldn't see this at the time but looking back and writing this I can see it now. The hand and the bubble were becoming the focal point of the picture.  Hands are terribly difficult to get realistic, but they have this advantage over faces, they just have to look like a hand rather than someone's specific hand.

More paint and more tone. The background added to.  The hand was substantially left while I concentrated on the face.  What I was trying to do this week was to get the definition and the contrasts between the shaded and the light areas, trying to make it more three dimensional.  The hair was added in.  What is working is the interaction between the head and the bubble.  There is a convincing blowing action and they eyes are focused correctly.

Last week .  Three main things were done and again it is mainly about contrast in tone.  The highlight on the right side of the head were put in and the darker shadow was put in and blended.  More detail was added to the hair and the hand.  Finally the bubble. I am very pleased with the bubble.  It is a simple near sphere of white paint, a couple of blobs of white and smears of colour to give a sort of rainbow effect.  It is the best part of the painting and interacts well the head.

All and interesting experience.  The Obama portrait doesn't actually look like him.  The head and neck are too thin, the chin too high and the skin too light (although not that much). On the other hand it does actually look like a convincing person and looks thoroughly three dimensional.

My grandfather and me, looks more like the people they are supposed to.  Again my grandfather's head needs to be thicker and the area around the mouth needs work.  What I think I have managed to capture well is the interaction between the two.

For first attempts they are not too bad.  I am encouraged and shall do more.  One day they will actually look like the person.  That will be nice.