Hon. William M. Marutani

[Linda Brandon]

Garth, this is another outstanding portrait. I love the hard edge of the black robe against that pale warm value. And thanks for including those closeups; interlaced fingers can be a nightmare, but I can't remember ever seeing anything better than this.

[Michele Rushworth]

One word comes to mind: Wow.

[Mike Dodson]

Garth,

I really love this painting. The first thing that caught my eye is the cast shadows on the face, particularly the one to our left of his nose and around the glasses, it has a very natural look. Also, great job on the hands. This is my favorite of yours.

[Patricia Joyce]

I think I can see him breathing!! This is drawing me back to take another look. The color is so realistic. Beautiful hands. Some day, might I approach such beautiful work in my own paintings???!!

[Jimmie Arroyo]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang, that has to be one of the best pair of hands I've seen painted.

[Allan Rahbek]

Garth

You have done it again. But I think that with this judge you have managed to express more of his personality because you have actually met him.

His hands seems to express the jin yang energy, with the right hand fingers holding tight and the lefts opening. Also his face is full of energy, especially his mouth.

I guess that the color choice is to harmonize with your other portraits in that room. If it is the same location?

The main contrast of the two colors with the blue/black and several different warm ochers works well. Is this some sort of favorite choice of color?

Allan

[Elizabeth Schott]

I love the color scheme! The painting as usual is rendered great!

[Chris Saper]

Garth,

Wonderful work. I can feel the warmth of the light on his face.

You have handled the both the form shadows and the cast shadows so masterfully. Their edges and transitions are just excellent.

[Jane Bradley]

Garth,
Every single element of this painting is masterful - composition, color., etc. I love that you are not afraid to use color and breathe life into the portrait.

[Garth Herrick]

I thought this one would never get noticed. Yet another Judge!? I go away for several hours and WOW! My email suggested just one response. Thanks, let me attempt to respond in kind, this is more than I expected.

Ilaria: Thanks, I vaguely remember my grandmother suggesting this color scheme when I was about five years old and using Crayola crayons. Maybe this has subliminally stuck with me these past forty-one years, I don't know? In reality Judge Marutani was sitting in front of windows with white venetian blinds; not very interesting I thought.

Linda: Thanks, I actually was daunted by those hands. They sat unfinished for a long time. Finally I just bit the bullet and everything seemed to pull together in a few hours like magic. The cast shadow to the left of the wristwatch is one I made up to accomodate the puffy robe sleeves. The choice of the interlaced fingers gesture was very spontaneous. It was a quick fleeting gesture caught in a digital snapshot. It just felt right.

Michele: WOW Thanks!

Mike: Thanks! The seeming natural quality to the cast shadows are due to the fact that they are mostly derived from a single photo with all of this information taken early on a December morning with a low raking sun. When I came back to having him sit the following March, it was impossible to acheive this lighting effect again.

Patricia: Thanks, (and of course you will, why not!).

Jimmy: Thaaaaaaaannnnks! Like I said to Linda above, I guess I was just lucky to get a great reference photo with this magical lighting.

Allan: Thanks, and I think you have a good point! It seemed much more natural and intuitive to paint a living Judge for once. I like your interpretation of the hands' energy. I sensed energy in them too, when I saw them in action. I don't know why I settled on this color scheme, but originally it was quite a bit more intense, if not fluorescent. It needed a lot of toning down, and these earth colors seemed much more livable. I don't yet know precisely where this will hang in City Hall (generally I need to know this, but here no one could tell me), so the color scheme is not particularly going to relate to other paintings, except they almost certainly all will have a lot of black as a theme!

Elizabeth: Thanks, like I just said, this color scheme went though some evolution along the way.

Chris: Thanks. Thanks! The digital reference picture on a December morning was too cool in overall color effect for my taste, so I manually interpolated the colors to warm them up.

Jane: Thanks! Just too much! I am more afraid of color than you may think, but in this case I could discern plenty of distinction in colors from the reference from the beginning, so this just naturally fell into place for me.

Josef: Thanks! Being in the presence of this Judge, I could really sense the warmth of his personality.

Best to you all,

Garth