I’ve finished the detailed drawing of his eyes which look strange right now because I’ve outlined every large value change. Everything will look better once painted. I’ve also put on the first wash of colour in the background. It will get many layers ending with a greyish colour but I wanted texture and movement I it. Covering the white background makes it less intimidating to start the portrait part.
I think I forgot to mention the size. It’s 16x 20”.
I am joining our local art club for an exhibition in December. It is our clubs 75th anniversary so we decided the theme of the show is “Honouring Our Past”. I decided to paint a portrait of my grandfather who was a geologist at the Hollinger Gold Mine for most of his career.
The most difficult decision was whether to paint this in watercolour or oils. I decided to use watercolour because of the ease of just sitting down to work with minimal effort and quick cleanup. It is also the medium I have used since I started painting. I am still exploring oils and the result might not be what I envisioned.
I started by wrapping watercolour paper (Fabriano Artistico 140 lb) around a primed canvas. The canvas provides extra strength and structure. I drew out his portrait from an old black and white image. I still have a few adjustments to make on the eyes to get them just right. The rest of the face isn’t done in detail. I sketch out enough to get the proportions right and note changes in value that are important. All the rest of the details are added as I paint. I already know the plaid shirt is going to cause some extra thought.
It has been forever since I painted anything let alone an oil portrait. I have to learn technique all over again. I just haven’t had much desire to paint during Covid and this one was drawn out over a year ago.
The background will be more of a dark brown rather than the black that the under painting is now. Today I started the first layers on her face.
I worked on correcting values, colour, and unifying washes for the shadows. It’s finished except to wax it for protection and frame it tomorrow once I’m sure it’s dry.
The last couple of days I didn’t have time to paint (babysitting my three grandson’s). Today I concentrated on values and small washes of colour. I have to get the underlying values correct before I add unifying washes for shadows over large areas. I’m about 80% finished which is good because the deadline is in two days. I’ll be doing a lot more tomorrow.
Finally, most of the petals have at least some colour on them. Next comes the harder part, adjusting values. I will pick the lightest and darkest values in the petals and start adjusting each one to make them lighter or darker according to those two points. I also have to soften any paint edges that need it.
More work darkening the already painted petals and started on a few more. It’s amazing how dark the values have to be to show a white flower in shadow. Once I get all the values and colours right I’ll unify the whole painting with a very light golden wash. There are really very few pure white areas.
