Will

Julie Deane · 07-08-2007, 11:01 AM

Tom -

The skin tones are great! I love how close the values are in the face, and so beautifully painted. Such nice warm tones, and everything fits well together.

Mischa Milosevic · 07-08-2007, 11:24 AM

Tom, thank you for the close ups. Lovely! I would have loved to watch you work on this one and learn. If by chance you have recorded the procedure please, if its not to much trouble, send it to me, even a high rez of the legs and head. Did you follow the classical stages of painting dead- colouring, 1st, 2nd painting, glazing toning?

Grate job and good for you!

Enzie Shahmiri · 07-08-2007, 12:24 PM

Tom, it's gorgeous!

The light, clothing, limbs everything! I love his freckled face and how you were able to show the freckles without them jumping out at you. Same goes for the teeth, so few people can pull teeth off and you just did it in a most wonderful way.

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco · 07-09-2007, 05:47 AM

Tom, what a soft velvety feeling, and there is elegance and balance throughout the painting.
Truely beautiful
Ilaria

Tom Edgerton · 07-09-2007, 08:17 AM

Thanks, everyone...

Julie--I'm finally getting the importance of neutrals in skin.

Enzie--thanks. I've figured out that, like a lot of things, it's better to paint everything around the teeth and define them by outside contours, rather than painting them as little Chicklets lined up.

Ilaria--it's a little confined horizontally, but it's planned with a painting of his twin, facing the other way, so they can either be hung together or not.

Mischa--I prefer to paint as directly as I can. I paint a first layer in color, and establish values then, and continue to refine in layers in color. I glaze very sparingly to adjust color at the end, if at all. I'm impatient with glazes and don't wait sufficiently for them to set, so I muddle and dirty them up--I don't like to glaze at all if I can help it.

Marina Dieul · 07-09-2007, 08:22 AM

Beautiful portrait, Tom.
I like the light, and the nice athmosphere created by it. Your backgroung is really great.
I agree for the feet : very elegant pose and soft skin tones.
Congratulations!

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco · 07-09-2007, 08:28 AM

Tom, don't you find it really really hard to paint two works that have to hang together as a dyptich ? To the difficulties of just painting you have to add the task of matching colours and size. What a task!
How are you going about ? Did you carry on on both paintings at the same time or is the second one to be started yet? I also wanted to ask you if you started on a toned ground here or on white.
Thanks
Ilaria

Tom Edgerton · 07-09-2007, 08:36 AM

Marina, thanks. I appreciate this from one who's paintings define elegance.

Ilaria--Not too difficult if it's planned from the beginning. I posed both boys with this goal in mind, and then worked the compositions in roughs simultaneously. I am not painting them concurrently--another job has intervened--but I'll keep both in the studio to paint with similar colors and values. (They are not planned for the same frame, just to be hung on the same wall if the client wants. Similar but different, with the same head size.) The canvas ground is white, but I tone the drawing with washes overall when I start painting, as the white throws off my value eye.

SB Wang · 07-30-2007, 01:19 PM

"A lotus grows in a clear water,
so natural without overly decorating"
(Qing shui chu fu rong,
Tian ran qu diao shi)

"Lotus Tom", a possible name for posterity.

Richard Jones · 07-30-2007, 01:51 PM

Tom,

This is a beautiful painting. The skin tones and color are amazing, but I think what really sells me on this one is the mood. Maybe it's a rare, lazy moment when there's nothing else to do but sit outside and enjoy the morning sunlight. I think some of the best portraits/figures look less posed and arranged and more natural. This one has that quality. Thanks for briefly sharing your procedure.

Richard