Gregg and Stacy

[Dale Shipman]

I joined this site in May, but this is my first submission for a critique and would appreciate any suggestions you may offer to help me on this and future portraits.

I've done portraiture in the rub out method for years but I was so impressed by the underpainting technique that has been discussed on this site that I had to try it. I'd especially like to thank Karen Wells for her explanation and demonstration of this method.

This is a 40" x 30" underpainting of my son Gregg and daughter-in-law Stacy. I will also post the reference photo that inspired me to attempt this painting. The photo was taken by one of their friends at a mystery party that they had attended. They were to dress the part of the character that they acted out. When they showed me the black and white photo my imagination started thinking about doing a sepia-toned portrait, typical of the old sepia-toned photos on tin plates that my grandparents had shown to me as a child. When I was planning out this portrait I tried to imagine what to place in the background that would tie the image to the 1920's-30's time era in which the mystery was based. I felt like the Rolls Royce Phanthom 1 would be a nice item to add that would tie it to the time era as well as give the setting some class. I copied the car from a classic car book that I had in my library and the rest of the background was adlib. Again I would appreciate any suggestions or thoughts on this painting that I could carry over to future projects.