Faces

I love painting portraits.  I painted my first portrait at 15 of James Taylor, “Sweet Baby James” album cover.  I had a wicked crush on him and loved his music.  I remember working long into the night on this portrait, thinking this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.  I love it!!  Then reality hit when I showed my mother the portrait…Great hobby she said.  I was devastated.  Finally something I could really do well and it meant nothing to her.  Guess I have been fighting that my whole life.

Fast forward to now, I’m a great deal older, been to therapy, grabbed some courage, and said to hell with it.  If not now when!  I love to paint, really anything but people are the most interesting and the most challenging.  Landscapes are beautiful and full of color, very relaxing, and fun to paint but portraits challenge the skill.  You have to get it right.  A landscape you can fudge it and it can work.  If it doesn’t look exactly like the place, well it’s artist license.  If it doesn’t look like the person you are supposed to paint, that’s a failed commission.

The expression of the person is so important.  You can make it say really anything with just a change of an eye brow or a curl of the mouth.  For me the portrait is not successful if the eyes don’t follow you around the room.  Spooky I know but that’s what I try to do.  Older people are more fun to paint.  They have more of a story to tell.  Children haven’t experienced much and it shows in the smooth face.  The lines of the face, like the lines on the palm, tell a story.  As a portrait painter it’s my job to tell that story.  Take the viewer into the life of the person on the canvas. 

Colors matter in a portrait.  Did you know flesh tones are made up of every color in the rainbow?  I use blues, greens and purples in the shadows of the face. I highlight the face in yellows, oranges and red.  Did you know there is really no pure white and no pure black in skin tone?  The same colors are used in every portrait no matter the race.  More or less pigment is used but exactly the same colors.  Might be something to take to heart in this current environment, just a thought.