Polo Portrait
 

The client supplied a number of professional photos and this is the source we agreed upon for a surprise commission, 40" x 30" oil on linen. Other images of the subject in action on a pony obscure his face. This picture best captures his expression and character.

The challenge for me is to make something important out of a casual pose. When I posterized this for scale, he appears to be slouching. Nothing classic in that! I think if I can straighten his posture a tad, the portrait can succeed.

What do you think? Thumbnail follows.

Charcoal Study
 

This is my idea for a composition in which the lightest lights and darkest darks are all on the subject set against a middle value of suggested activity.

Polo picture
 

Jeanine,

I have a suggestion for you. Many times we are put in position to work from inferior material. This often does not reflect our vision of the subject. It puts talented people in the position of producing a picture far below their skill levels. All that remains is the picture. You are not there to defend yourself.

This looks like a good potential area for future portraits. I realize that it is to be a surprise. Can't you tell these fellows that the material will hamper your efforts and you would like to shoot it yourself? Suggest the friends take you and the subject out to dinner. Have a drawing prepared from the photo. Present that at dinner and then his polo pals can tell them that they are sporting him to a portrait with Stamfords' leading portrait artist. Then you would have a really good chance to do a magnificent painting of a polo player, a great portfolio piece.

Surprise
 

Dear Sharon:

From your comments, I presume you do not think this photo source is a good one. Looking at your awe-insipring website, I can see why!

The wife of the subject is fully aware of my preference for taking my own photos. However, the total surprise is of utmost importance to her.

I found the expression and lighting on the face here worthy of my best effort. This is clearly a departure from a classic pose. Partially because of that, it is one the client believes will hold the most meaning for the man.

I must confess, I am strongly attracted to this composition from an artistic standpoint. In the spirit of Degas, I am going for a behind-the-scenes pose versus an "on stage" look. If I were photographing him, I would pose him very similarly, just ask him to sit up a bit.

On the bright side, the quality of the original image is excellent. (A reduced-in-size scan is posted above.) I can count the freckles on his arms!

I plan to paint a small study. Any additional comments are welcome!

Jeanine,

Could you bring this gentleman over to our right a bit and include his pony coming in from the our left in the background? Eliminate the standing subject in the background. Add a few other artifacts here and there to balance the composition on the high right. The slouching might suggest an end of day, satisfyingly worn out look.

Cropping
 

Dear Mike:

Thank you for the terrific suggestions!

The scene is the members' tent after a game. The ponies don't go there. I could rework the background to have a trailer and put his pony in that way.

My idea here is to suggest the buzz of players (from the field and off) behind him. I did plan on adding elements as needed on viewer's right such as two female figures, lemonade pitchers, tablecloth, riding crops, and a chukka sitting on the grass.

Here it is full size. Next is cropping as you suggested. Which do you think is better?

Charcoal Study Cropped
 

Here is the tighter version.

Hi Jeanine,

I definitely like the cropped version, the second one much better. As for the slouch, it doesn't bother me. It obviously shows a man who has played hard and is resting for a bit. What about putting in his polo stick (or whatever they call them) leaning against the bench coming in from the lower left, leading the eye to him. I would also try to put the polo hat on the bench. Like the idea of the horse in the background too that Mike suggested.

Sorry, went back and looked at it and see that the polo hat IS on the bench!

There is an active polo crowd in my hometown of San Antonio. Retama, I think is the name of the field. I watched a few matches there between some Florida teams and a team from Argentina. All I really know about polo is that you don't have just one polo pony, you better have about five.

When I said move him a bit to the right, I was seeing a more horizontal composition with the horse (maybe not the full horse) coming in from our left, nuzzling his shoulder as he looked the other way.

I think your idea sounds fine. The tighter version seems a little too tight for all that you want to include. I would ask if, to the layperson, those things which you would include would give enough to explain "polo", or maybe that's not even important.

Replies
 

Thank you Alicia and Mike!

- Riding crops are currently leaning in from viewer's right to direct the eye toward the subject. When I try placing them on the other side, they block the flow to the background. I thought he could be holding one, you know, in between his legs and closer to his body. I currently have him holding Gatorade, which, I believe, adds to the "after-the-game" feeling.

- Mike, you are so funny! Your suggestion to crop tighter on right has met with approval from everyone but you! Polo cognoscienti will know exactly what this is from his leg protectors, tight white pants, and helmet. The Greenwich crowd (of Conyers Farm) will recognize the characteristic striped tent, and the "scene" suggested within in about a nanosecond!

I'm still undecided about the cropping. The bigger version has a nice kind of wave pattern, and gives me room to tell a story. The cropped version makes the subject more important.

Oh, to be born a Libra! It is a real balancing act. Your comments help to tip the scales.
Thank you so much!

Hi Jeanine,

I agree with Mike in that the cropped version is a little too tight (it emphasizes the other man's backside a little too much :sunnysmil). You have done a great job with the sketches and I'm sure you can give the feeling of distance between the two men.

Good luck with this one and post your progress, it looks like fun!

Renee Price

Hi Jeanine,

Nice to see you back on the Forum!

I prefer the non-cropped version

Polo picture
 

Jeannine, I spent 20 years toiling as a commercial artist. Often we were provided with material that we had to make work. Some suggestions that might help.

A. Make sure you get a large blow-up of the photo. Get a separate close-up of his head to the size you want it preferably 8". For this subject and for a man 8" is as small as I would go on a head.

B. Draw him in classical and heroic proportions, 8 heads high, anything else and he will look dumpy. They are 1, the head, 2, to his armpits, 3, to his waist, 4, to his crotch 5. mid thigh, 6. bottom of kneecap, 7, mid calf, 8, to bottom of weight bearing heel.

The length of the neck is 1/3 the length of the head.

C. Enlarge the figure in relationship to the background, this will work because of the compressed space of this shot.

D. Crop the figure mid-calf. Those legs will look shriveled in a painting. Move the figure in white behind the polo guy. The dark side of the figure will be silhoetted against the played down white.

E. Keep the stuff on the bench to your left just as it is. It is a great mini polo still life. Crop a little beyond that. Crop sharply to the right of the polo figure so he is more monumental and centered.

F. Simplfy the background to just suggest polo tent, ie. soft vertical stripes. If you can re-photograph the scallops of the tent (or similar tent) do it. Make sure it is in the in the same light. Paint it horizontally across top of picture witout any dips, a graphic element. Soften and remove any other extraneous detail.Make sure the guy is the center of attention.

G. Your responsibility is to the final work and yourself as an artist. If your client wants to add things which, in your judgement don't work, be firm and decline. Remind her she hired you based on your previous work and to trust you.

H. Do not try to force this composition into a 30" x 40". It may well be 30" x 48".

I. Good Luck!

Spiral
 

Renee, Mari, and Sharon:

Thank you so much for your insightful comments!

Mari, I was amazed to see I have a near-perfect Fibonacci spiral within this composition with his his eyes in the center of interest!

I made a transparency which is roughly reproduced here.

This Fibonacci guy really gets around. I'll read a tidbit from one of my books:

"In his book 'The Elliott Wave Theory', Elliott also stresses the importance of the number series known as the Fibonacci Summation Series. Fibonacci (also known as Leonardo de Pisa) was an Italian mathematician who lived in the 13 century. Fibonacci's summation series begins with the numbers 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144... and goes on to infinity. Except for the first '1' each number in the series is the sum of the two previous numbers. Elliot was convinced that the numbers in the Fibonacci series were related to all occurances in nature."

This was taken from page 39 of my book:

Techniques of a Professional Commodity Chart Analyst, by Arthur Sklarew.

There's also some good links in the following thread regarding the Fibonacci series. http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...s=&threadid=91

On one of the links I mention in that thread, you can mouse over Mona Lisa and Leonardo's Vetruvian Man and the golden rectangles in the artwork appear. Here's the link directly to that page: http://library.thinkquest.org/27890/...=1&tqtime=1010

Jeanine,

Just a quick note about the charcoal sketch. I think you've tipped his head down and turned it quite a bit around toward his shoulder, and that is adding considerably to the "slouched" look that you're trying to avoid. Be sure that doesn't creep into your painting. (You might be reading a light on the side of his neck as the center of the chin.)

Hello,

I see that you removed the white diagonal line which is visible in photograph. My feeling is that adding the white line gives the composition more stability. Because the head is 'balancing' on his body, it's a dynamic pose, maybe including the diagonal line gives the composition more strength.

Greetings,
Peter

Food for Thought
 

Dear Steven and Peter:

Thank you for your comments! I will certainly keep them in mind when I do the color note in a few weeks time.

For now, I am digesting the bountiful food for thought I have been given!