Sunday, January 08, 2017

Portrait of Us (Painting as of Jan. 8, 2017)


This morning I continued working on this project, a portrait of a couple.  I am working from their vacation photo, taken in Greece, that shows them on a motor bike, wearing helmets and sunglasses.  In December, I did a pencil sketch (posted here Dec. 14,  2016).  Then a few days ago, I traced the basic lines of the pencil sketch onto the canvas, to help me get the painting started quickly. This gave me the basic positions, with a few lines, barely visible.  After making sure I could actually see the lines I had traced, I switched to paint (acrylic).  So far I am still using only white and brown paint  (burnt umber) because I am not yet going for realistic color but  just trying to see where the lights and darks areas.  I am working from the photo, trying to make sure things are in the right place: facial features, sunglasses, helmets.  Sometimes I am measuring, and sometimes looking at the painting in a mirror and sometimes even turning the painting upside-down. As I work I am already trying to get a likeness, but right now that isn't my primary focus. At this point I have more basic goals: does anything in the painting seem to defy the laws of physics, or of biology, etc.?  Is this a believable picture of a man wearing a helmet, of a woman in sunglasses, of two people on a bike? 

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