University President

[Allan Rahbek]

Congratulations Alex,
I agree with everyone else that this portrait shows your mastery of juggling the many elements of a complex motif into a balanced composition.
The model looks very much alive because of the subtle temperature shifts in the complexion. I was surprised by the yellow- greenish shadow in his face, but it works very well.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thanks, Allan, I appreciate what you say. It was quite an experience painting the face because, for some reason, the color in the life study differed radically from the color in the digital photos. Usually I find that the digital photos record the color, but do not (at least in the prints) show brilliance of illumination or color accents. That I have to supply myself, and if I have done a color study from life I have a record of how the light and color appeared to me. but in this case the color was actually different. The cool greenish light on the shadow side of his face was coming from a skylight in the center of the building. It was quite strong in reality, but it hardly appeared at all in the photos. I first painted it in as it was in the life study, but Dr. Papadakis felt it was too strong, so I toned it down, striking a compromise between the life study and the photos.