Portraits in Progress
I am attempting to paint a series of portraits of family members, partly as gifts but also to practice in the hope of getting commissions. I am working on four at the moment, each at different levels and each at completely different degrees of success. I've found that elderly faces are a joy to paint, fun and expressive while younger ones are impossible smooth and seemingly shapeless. All will come with practice but in some cases a lot more is needed than others. Another area in which I've barely touched in this project is composition. I am painting them for my Australian relatives and therefore am †rying to appease their taste and am working from very limited source material. Therefore they are extremely simple portraits, with the figured posing for a camera. My tutors at uni would dismiss them as a waste of efforts and with the next lot a really do want to try to experiment and be more daring with my composition.
I found painting my grandparents a really enjoyable experience. I had a chance to really play with mark making and because I knew them so well I could use my knowledge of their characters over the visual sources. I was determined to get my poppas cheek and joy for life as well as the warmth and generosity of my grandma. Still a long way to go but I do think this might be a really nice piece. Will update as I go along.
This is a painting started as a birthday present, but is now very late. Still planning to finish but needed a few weeks to work out how to progress. Hopefully the other pieces will have taught be enough. I like the colours and the composition but I need to capture their characters still which is obviously imperative in portraiture.
These two are the ones I'm really struggling with since I not only have to capture one person but four or five using the same style. I'm not a portrait artist yet and my inexperience really does show. But they are not finished yet, maybe they'll just require more concentration and work. They are to be sent as Christmas gifts so I have a few months to go.
The key points I have learned from these are- portraits would be much more fun if I really planned and played with composition, if they were half way through something or interacting. As it is I'm acting as a inefficient photocopier. I do enjoy it and its very much worth pursuing but will take a lot of work.
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| Portrait of my wonderful grandparents- at the half way point. |
I found painting my grandparents a really enjoyable experience. I had a chance to really play with mark making and because I knew them so well I could use my knowledge of their characters over the visual sources. I was determined to get my poppas cheek and joy for life as well as the warmth and generosity of my grandma. Still a long way to go but I do think this might be a really nice piece. Will update as I go along.
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| Jo and Leon- work in progress |
This is a painting started as a birthday present, but is now very late. Still planning to finish but needed a few weeks to work out how to progress. Hopefully the other pieces will have taught be enough. I like the colours and the composition but I need to capture their characters still which is obviously imperative in portraiture.
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| Aunty Shelly and Cousins - long way to go |
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| Aunty Jenny and Cousins- just began |
These two are the ones I'm really struggling with since I not only have to capture one person but four or five using the same style. I'm not a portrait artist yet and my inexperience really does show. But they are not finished yet, maybe they'll just require more concentration and work. They are to be sent as Christmas gifts so I have a few months to go.
The key points I have learned from these are- portraits would be much more fun if I really planned and played with composition, if they were half way through something or interacting. As it is I'm acting as a inefficient photocopier. I do enjoy it and its very much worth pursuing but will take a lot of work.
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