Part Three – Project – Looking at faces – Exercise – Head and shoulder portrait

I started this exercise by making a couple of quick sketches of my wife whilst crocheting. The two sketches were not flattering. However that was not the aim of them. I was more interested in getting a good composition for this exercise. The two sketches are shown below, it is the second one that I decided I would use.

I also took two photographs of the pose and used the second one as the basis for the portrait.

I made a decision to work on a dark green ground. I wasn’t sure how well this would work as the colour didn’t look dark enough the make the tones, particularly the subtle skin tones stand out. One of the advantages of the pose I had chosen was that the sitter was looking downwards and concentrating on her task. This had the effect of lowering her eyelids and obscuring the eyes. However this also gave a challenge in how to make the pose look authentic.

I marked out the shape of the head and the main features in charcoal. This sketch seemed to capture the pose and the proportions of the face looked reasonably correct.

 

I removed most of the charcoal and painted the outline of the face in Naples yellow and the worked upon the shoulder, the jacket and followed this by working up the main features and colours and tones on the face.

I omitted to take enough photographs of the work as it progressed. I stopped at this point below and left the work overnight.

Returning in the morning I noted some areas where the colour and tones looked a bit weak and also there were some lines and contrasts that I didn’t feel were right. I worked over these areas until I felt that I had got to a point where I was in danger of overworking the painting and perhaps losing the likeness.

The finished portrait is shown below. I feel that it captures a likeness. There are some areas where I feel that the colours look a bit tame and pale. There is perhaps a lack of tonal quality and the original pose could have been better lit to give more contrast. I also struggled to get the expression of the lips correct. There is the hint of a smile in the pose which I have failed to capture.

 

• Part 3 Portrait and Figure