Monday, May 9, 2011

Ian

Oil on canvas. 8"x10"


I did more work on this painting, but it's still not right. Last night's effort was so scary that I'm pulling it off the blog!

I agree with the sentiment that portraits are "frickin' hard!"

May 10, 2011
Below is the first pass of this painting. I often forget to stand back to view the painting as I'm working on it, and that's what happened with this one. Although the color changes looked ok up close, when I moved back (and when I took the photo), I realized that the painting looked flat and washed out. That also created problems with form. Unless you viewed the painting from about 12 inches away, you couldn't see color changes and the painting looked pretty funky.

It was frustrating, but by painting often, I'm learning, and I feel like I'm reinforcing the knowledge I've gained (painting kata).

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, yea, they are hard... But this is beautiful...

Lisa Lynch said...

Speaking as the mother of the boy you're trying to paint, I think you should have kept the previous painting on the blog because you're showing your progress.

The last portrait wasn't perfect but I sure saw Ian in there and now I see more of him. It would be fun to compare the two and see what you changed.

Sue Harrell said...

George, thanks so much. I admire your portraits, and respect your opinion.

Sue Harrell said...

Lisa - That's a good idea. I cringe when I look at the previous painting, but it is helpful to me to compare the two. I'll post the other painting underneath this one.