Portrait of Max Mack - 30" x 40" oil on canvas
 

Here we go. I will post updates to this one periodically.

The picture shows the 16 x 20 study next to the 30 x 40 canvas. The only thing I changed from the study is the tilt of the body. I had placed him slightly tilted forward in the study but that gave him a slightly pleading priestly look. So I backed off a bit.

I am starting with a very brief but accurate pencil layout. My objective in this piece is to render skin and clothing in a deliberate and economical way, trying to stay away from passage massaging.

Two hours into the painting.

Dear Deladier,

It looks like you're off to an excellent start and are keeping the freshness of the smaller work.

I was intrigured by the circular form behind your painting so I poked around on the "Equipment" posts and saw your discussion on your new easel. Please demonstrate for us how it works and how you built it. The rotation feature looks especially intriging.

Hi, Linda. Funny you should ask...I finished building the easel yesterday - and started this painting on it today.

I just posted additional pictures of the easel along with a brief explanation in the Studio Equipment area. Please check it out here.

Update
 

I am trying to put things where they belong and then leave them there. Easier written than painted. Sorry about the glare.

Just a quick progress note, Deladier. I'd go ahead and work some of the background even at this stage. Some of what's going on in the fleshtones is going to be influenced by the values and hues in the background immediately adjacent to the head. You're also going to want to avoid a paint ridge at the perimeter of the head, which you can do now by committing a little less firmly to a contour edge. You'll be wanting to come into that later anyway, finding and losing that edge, which is a lot harder if there's a leftover levee of paint from an earlier statement.

Update at 16 hrs.
 

Steven, your suggestion makes sense but waiting on the background is one of the things with which I wanted to experiment in this piece.

I have had problems with restating the background once the elements in the foreground were stated and had to be corrected. I have had to compromise with a less than translucent treatment of the background because corrections require opaque aggression.

Soooo....I says to myself, says I...what if I hold on and see how this goes in the middle and when I arrive at a reasonable conclusion I slosh the background AND restate the edges of the head at the same time. I am glad you said what you did 'cause I did have some levees I wasn't thinking about. I wiped them down.

Deladier,

I have to mention how fresh and energetic I find every stroke. You have a very immediate, painterly approach, which I personally find completely engaging. I am interested to see how you tackle the background; I am one who commits early to the background, yet I feel that you may not need to; so paint on, and show everything.

I loved your smaller study, and do not feel that you have lost any of that energy in going to the larger piece. When you post the next stage, might you comment a bit on the colors you have used, your thinking as to how you are dealing with your edges, color and temperature transitions, etc.?

It's a pleasure to see your work here.

19 hrs.
 

Thank you for your encouraging words, Chris. I can sure use them.

So far in this painting I have used a limited palette - I am planning on keeping it that way. The skin has been mostly rendered with Transparent Oxide Red and Cobalt Blue Light. I have had to resort to unusually large amounts of cadmiums (red and orange), to enliven the hot dark passages. I don't know how they dry and frankly I am a little concerned with loss of brilliance as the oil gets absorbed by the canvas leaving things chalky.

My approach to edges can be described simply as Very careful. I am doing my best to stay alert when I hit those edges and to get the heck out of there as soon as possible instead of doing my typical lingering and weakening.

The temperature composition has been tricky. The light to the model's right is very cool and to the left it is very warm. I am trying to just look at it and do what makes sense from afar.

21 hrs.
 

Face practically finished. Background laid around head and edges addressed but still on probation.

Some of the most refreshing work I have seen in a long time. Brilliant!. I want to see more.......L

Update
 

Thank you, Leopoldo. I'll try to live up to your complimentary remarks and not botch this one.

Close-up
 

...at 24 hrs.

Believe me D, you are very good and I would like to learn more from you, like your medium and selection of brushes for those all too convenient beautiful brush strokes. I will watch for sure!......L

Source photo
 

Sorry I didn't post this before. I just now read the posting guidelines for the Oil Critiques room...

Gorgeous work! Checking on the likeness, his face in the painting is a bit narrower, especially on to the right of the features, than in the reference photo. But otherwise a truly wonderful painting with beautiful fresh brushwork and color!

Hi, Michele.
 

I deliberately accentuated the lines of his head (especially his left outline), and that might have contributed to the imbalance you pointed out.

I am going to try a couple of (hopefully) delicate remedies and see if it will take that away. Thanks!

32 hours.
 

My goal was to paint this picture in less than 20 hrs.

HA!

Alive!
 

Hi Deladier,

Beautiful work! My comment is that the subject looks more alive in your painting than he does in 'real life' (the photo).

Joan Breckwoldt

Update at 36 hours.

Close-up.

40 hrs.

Hand detail
 

... in progress.

I am loving this portrait. This proves that even when you are very skilled, and make no mistakes, good portraits still take a long time.

Like Leopoldo, I too am interested in what medium and brushes you are using.

Update at 52 hrs.
 

Hi, Linda. For the skin I am using only Langnickels 5590 (these are flats). For the garments I am using hog bristles (flats and filberts). My medium is a 50% mix of linseed oil and turpenoid. I am liking the Langnickels because they are gentler on existing layers. When I use stiffer brushes I keep losing things I like and find myself having to redo things again and again.

oops...Here is the update.

I am hoping to finish this piece before the end of the current decade. Tomorrow would be nice...I AM having a hard time resolving the hands.

Watch out for the very cool and very dark shadows on the inner surfaces of the index and pinkie fingers on the hand on our left. I don't know what's in the reference but that tone seems out of place there.

Still a gorgeous painting! I like the brush effects you're getting with those flats, too.

Nice job, Deladier! Only one note, and this is one of those mantras which should always be playing in your thoughts,

"If it happens on the left side, it happens on the right side."

On the face, the jaw on the right does not match the jaw on the left. I would say to take a second look at the (our) right side jaw. It seems to jut out more than it would appear from the shape on the left jaw. This has bothered me for a while, so I thought I would mention it. In using a photograph, you invariably get distention, and this mantra is a way of questioning the information the photograph is providing, and gives you a way to double check it.

Peggy

You are right, Peggy. Michele mentioned that problem also and I have targeted that as one of the areas I need to revisit.

I only haven't done it yet because I want to populate the whole canvas before making corrections. My plan is to approximate the left side to the right form, if I can. Thank you for the observation. It confirms mine.

Hand update
 

I'll finish tomorrow. I'm sure. Yeah, tomorrow I'll finish it. Tomorrow for sure. Really.

Much better color now on those two fingers of the hand on our left!

Finished hands
 

You are right, Michele. Thank you for pointing out the temperature problem. It was hard to paint the fingers. I had never painted fingers before and had no idea what I was getting into. I'll pay more attention to how much finger to show next time I set a pose...that much I'll remember. I'll leave the hands as they are. I just need to restate the edges and finish the book and its background.

I would appreciate any comments - particularly regarding method. I don't have an approach, so to speak, so I go about it haphazardly as you can see by looking at my sequence of steps. I believe that if I had a clearer idea of how to execute the whole thing from the start, this painting would have happened more quickly and better.

The image is rotated to maximize size of hands.

The result is gorgeous. I wouldn't worry about how you got there.

Invite
 

Someone e-mailed me and suggested I read this and try to offer something helpful. This is very good work and the small things are all anyone can suggest at this point and for work of this level.

As to the hands, I'd suggest you try to find ways to use an occasional large brushstroke to simplify-more variety. Also more edge variety. I see few real hard edges (good) and yet no real lost edges in the hand for example. Try to add some (several) lost, soft edges and one or two well placed hard edges. Artists working from life will look for the hardest edge and the softest edge initially.

As to overall method, the results justify the method and this is good work. Method can become habit and then one's work can become stale. I detect no need for that, maybe you can explain.

Cecilia Beaux was as good as anybody at the above suggestions as was Bettina Steinke.

Okay
 

I looked again and did see some soft edges like on the shirt edge. This is good. Now think about how the lines behind the hands intersect with the stuff in front. The intersections must be soft too. The stuff in front gets right of way. Blur and soften the stuff behind it to help the hands come forth. Shadow colors: the cast shadows from the hands need to be more carefully defined, I feel, and different color than the fingers. Warm light, cool shadows. The warm/cool thing would help you too.

Lastly
 

Two more things, see the bright edge of the book between the fingers? This must be painted softer. Also the bright light on the meat of the thumb should be soft and glow into the dark behind it. I really would paint those both wet into wet.

Thank you for your comments, Tim. They are right on the mark, as always. Here is my reason for bringing up the issue of methodology - I have been painting for a year now and I am going about it without any formal instruction. I am serious enough about it to have decided to dedicate all of my time to learning the craft and art of painting.

My hope was that, by showing this painting from beginning to conclusion, the experienced professionals of the forum who are available and willing to share their knowledge might be able to spot problems in my approach and make suggestions in that regard.

As you correctly pointed out, method that becomes a habit is a liability. My aim is to distill a method in order to become a better craftsman and not a better painter. For that, I don't yet know what I need.

If you want to distill a method in order to become a better craftsman, all you need is practice. Not necessarily to perfect your results (which are already terrific) but to develop a systematic approach, if that's what you want. The more paintings you do the more you will find a sequence of doing things that works for you. But, as Tim pointed out, too much of a "system" can kill freshness, so don't worry about that aspect of it too much.

I am amazed that you paint so well after only doing this for a year and without any formal instruction. You truly have a gift!

One year!
 

I am reminded of what H James said of Sargent when he was very young, "He has an insolent degree of talent".

Your work will begin to flow and take on a look all its own with "miles of canvas" being put behind you. It is not unlike the signature you slap down on checks everyday. It changes with time and becomes your own through repeated execution.

The questions you seek are not easy to answer, due to the high degree of your talent. Few books are written on the small things that just a few persons ever come to want to know. I played some baseball in my youth and there were no books that told you how to adjust your swing for an expected curveball coming from a left-handed pitcher (likely low and away). These questions did not concern a critical mass (at least not enough baseball players to justify the publishers.)