Here is something I thought I would never do and that is paint a portrait and/or figure. Not because I dislike people, but because I didn't think I would be able to do it. I still don't know if I will be able to do it but now I hope so. Believe it or not, the two paintings are of the same girl. My class did the full body painting one week and then the portrait the next. According to my wife, the poor girl looks like a long haired man holding a knife in the full body painting. I can't say I disagree with her.
I am somewhat happy with the portrait painting so far. I also enjoyed doing it. I am still struggling with getting the three dimensional look but I think I am a lot closer with this portrait. I mixed up three shades of the skin tone to represent the highlights, mid-tones and shadow. From a few feet back she actually looks somewhat 3D. I will work on it in the coming weeks using reference photos I took at the end of the class. I hope I can really learn to do a decent portrait.
I learned that in painting, just like photography, that lighting is key. We had horrible overhead fluorescent lighting that really gave very little modeling to the girl. I can see when doing portraits or a still life or anything really, that lighting is very important. I knew that it was for photography but it is just as important to painting and for the same reasons. It is the light we are trying to capture after all.
You are so right about lighting Greg! I think hard light is the way to go in the beginning. Strong shapes of light and shadow really help. I think faces are the most difficult thing to paint, we certainly don't need to make it more difficult with bad lighting! Good luck with the portrait!
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