Oil of youngest son
 

Hi all! Been busy, but I did this oil this week and thought I would post it for your critique. It is a risky painting, with the lighting and all. I wanted a high contrast setup for a flashy kind of guy. I photographed it in my studio with a single light source.

20" x 16"

Close ups to follow.

Thanks

Close up of eyes

Close of mouth

Reference photo

In other posts you admitted that you usually project your photo when you paint portraits. This one looks wonderfully painterly. Did you project this one as well?

Yes.
 

Hi, Jen! Thanks! Yes, I admit it. I actually print out a black and white, full canvas-sized, tiled image and transfer it with graphite paper. I like that better than an overhead projector. I don't usually tell my clients that, but I don't have to prove to myself that I can draw.

Even, still, with a transfer, just as with a brushed drawing on the raw canvas, you have to use your eye as the image gets blurred out with the initial paint. I pretty much destroy the layout as I throw the pain on.

Perfect, then!
 

What bliss.

Hi Lon, I love the portrait very much
 

Forgive me Lon, if I (the rookie artist) sound rude and insolent by what i'm gonna say. I certainly felt the love and life exuding from the masterpiece...a work of art that could only come from the touch of the artist's soul. However, i thought that streak of pale color across the shirt, took much attention away from the face - especially that it shares the same value as the brightest part of the face.
By toning down the streak, or doing away with it altogether the painting will certainly look better. :)

Yes!
 

You have solved my problem with this white streak. I will do away with it.

By the way,
 

Thank you for your humble attitude. I am not really worthy of it. I draw pretty good, but I have not yet really found myself in oils. That is yet to come, I hope. Meanwhile, I keep stabbing away at efforts of my relatives, with an occasional commission in between. I have seen some improvement since I started looking here for insppiration! ;)

Hi Lon,

It's good to see you back on the Forum and posting your work again!

There's a lot of good fresh painterly technique here, which I like a lot. But this is so obviously from a photo, Lon. If your direction is toward photorealism I'm not qualified to comment about it because one of my personal goals is to make my work look as if it were painted from life. (I don't know whether I succeed generally.) You have such good life drawing skills, I have to you why you didn't just make this handsome young man sit still for you? I hope my question hasn't offended you.

Well, you're too modest. You have found your direction in your use of oils, and i commend that find. Everyone in this forum is on their own personal quest to their artistic journey, and we couldn't do it any better without helping one another. The moderators, as well as the other masters appearing in this forum (William Whitaker for example) serve as my role models to continue to inspire and guide others who are on this same journey - hence i provide what little knowledge i have to you, to help with your work. :)

No offence taken.
 

Linda,

I really started this subject as an experiment with my new camera for the camera's sake. Then, I thought it would be fun to paint it.

Frankly, I never paint from life, when you have all this technology at your fingertips. I would be hard pressed to find anyone who would pose for me from life, as I take a few days for the simplest of paintings.

I draw from life almost exclusively, because my sketches are brief, sketchy, impressionistic drawings.

Linda, what makes this such a dead giveaway that it is from a photograph, if you had not seen the reference photo?

And, is it not OK to work from photos in some trains of thought? Especially if they are your own?

Marcus,

I guess I have not really attained any successful nitch with oils like I have with drawing. Perhaps that is because my style is yet to be defined to my liking. I try different lighting, different subjects, an different pallets. But I have not lit upon a particular nitch which defines my style. I hope to eventually. I do not even particularly like my style, yet. I am just finding out my preferences in the pallet. I think I have alot of painting to do. I have done alot of drawing. There are really no shortcuts.

Thank you for your imput. I want it, and it was useful!

You're most welcome.
 

I'm glad to be of help.

Hi again Lon,

There are a lot of magnificent paintings being made from photographs. There are also a lot of terrifc portrait artists who work solely from photos and do very well at it. If you search around the Forum there are a lot fo discussions about this. The artists who turn out fantastic paintings from photos tend to spend a great deal of time lighting and posing the subject. There are a lot of portrait styles out there and so it's hard to generalize.

The open-mouthed smile, the blown-out lights, the high light-shadow ratio and the hardness of your edges are all things that indicate "working from a photo". Again, not a problem for you IF this is what you're after stylistically.

You already have a big gift for translating three-dimensional form onto a two-dimensional surface. It seems to me that a large part of your own personal "language" as an artist will be lost when you chose to follow a photo and abandon working from life. It just seems to me that you're trying to silence a gift you have and I hope that you won't.

Excellent points.
 

The edges - that is a clue. The open mouth, well, I draw the open mouth very often from life, but I have never painted it. Truthfully, I have never painted from life, something I would like very much to master. Perhaps then, I will fully grasp what you are talking about. I just can't find any willing models. The lighting - weren't there high contrast paintings done by the old masters with limited light sources? That is what I like. It will take some experimentation to see if it is worth trying.

I wish there were "purists" in my community to try to please. Unfortunately, many here do not even know the difference between a drawing and a painting. Those that do are hardly what you could define as purists.

However, perhaps I should consider stepping up to painting from life, and farther away from the photography thing, the direction I was going.

Thank you for your kind imput. I am honored.

Hi Lon,

If you want to practice painting from life, you might want to contact the local high schools in order to hire models. That's what Bill Whitaker does.

As far as people in your community not knowing high quality work, I bet you could find a good market for your art in Portland. Looks like you are about two hours away, right?

Perhaps so.
 

I have looked into drawing in Portland, but without success. I have never had an art exibit, other than a kioske. Perhaps I should consider that. I have had very poor experiences with art gallery owners. But only in Eugene, where the art is so very bad. I will post another oil to see what you think.