The Admiral
 

Hi, all!

Sorry I've been out of the loop--we're finishing a house with attached studio and it's eaten up all the spare time.

Here's a painting we unveiled last month. The subject is VAdm. Rodney Rempt, currently the superintendent of the Naval Academy at Annapolis. The portrait was painted for the Naval War College at Newport, RI, to commemorate his recent tenure as president there.

Everyone seemed pleased with the result.

Best--TE

Perfection, Tom! I particularly like your use of the rocket photo in the background.

How long has it been since he left the Naval War College?

Very nice Tom. I can see why everyone was pleased with the results. I like it a lot.

I just had to come and look at this again. THIS is how official portraits should be done. It has everything: pleasant expression, perfect drawing, balanced composition, color unity, etc. What more can I say? Can I be you when I grow up?

Way to go!
 

Beautiful! It has great realism without appearing photographic, a rare trait indeed, these days. I really love the subtlety of the color scheme, a wonderful example of less being more. Bravo.

Thanks a lot, guys.

Michele--He's been at Annapolis since last fall. The missile image came as a part of the job specs--a good part of the Admiral's career was devoted to developing and implementing missile defense systems--and the dicey part was figuring out how to get it in without it taking over. I'm pleased you think this aspect is successful.

Marvin--I really appreciate it. I'm handling backgrounds better since you dissected the Ingres for us.

Best--TE

Dear Tom,

I completely echo Marvin's ..(and everyone else's) comments - what a spectacular composition and a beautiful, and just exactly, restrained color harmony.

When you get a chance, I would love to hear your ruminations on how you decided on this composition. Too little is written on composition, and it is way too important to gloss over.

Bravo.

PS Michele, I am actually hoping to become an admiral when I grow up, so Tom can paint my portrait.

Hi Tom,

You always find the thoughtful human being behind any uniform or corporate suit. Your color choices and your compositions are always tasteful and solid without being formulaic or hamfisted. And your technique is, as always, one of my favorites. It's a good thing you're such a nice person or I would really be annoyed with you by now.

Congratulations on another excellent portrait!

I forgot to ask: how did you light this for the photography session?

And I am dying to see your studio, how about posting photos in the 'Studio' category?

Thanks again, all--

I'm very pleased that folks seem to think the composition works well, as I was juggling a lot of material required in the commission--most notably the missile image.

To respond to Chris' request, here are some of the thoughts I had, both in advance of the photo session, and while painting.

The Admiral requested that the missile image be included, as it was a prominent phase in his varied career. It also became evident that he wanted it prominently displayed, and perhaps as a part of the background space behind him, montage fashion. I felt this would have opened up a lot of spatial and perceptual confusion on the part of the viewer, so I suggested treating it as a piece of art, not as an "event," which thankfully, he agreed to later. (Fortunately, he didn't want a lot of clutter on the desk/credenza too.) I knew from the beginning that the danger was in the image's drama overtaking the whole painting, so framing it "corralled" it and kept it in check. As I played with the scale of it, it suggested some directional lines within the composition, such as the line of the exhaust cloud connecting with the line of his shoulders. The quality of the "clouds" also suggested some of the form and edge treatment of the Admiral's shadow on the wall, for balance.

Also, the blue matte around the photo in his office suggested the background, as I wanted the image to become as subordinate and non-contrasty as I could make it. The rich cobalt blue of the sky suggested a deep, cool shadow, which could de-emphasize the weight of the dress blues in relation to the lighter coloring of the Admiral's head. I also was careful to keep the lightest value in the photo darker than the shirt, and I grayed down some of the vividness of the "fire," so the eye would still go to the head first as I hoped.

Linda, I'd like to claim a lot of innovation in the lighting, but it's really classic portrait lighting--45 degree main light on our left, fill light for shadows behind the camera to get detail in the desk and dark uniform. I did use a "skim" light over his right (our left) shoulder to rim light the hair and shoulders and hopefully to give the cookie-cutter silhouette of the dress blues some added form. Ideally, I'd have set all of this up in his office and experimented more, but I only had thirty minutes with him for photos and we had to use a borrowed conference room and table, so the final compositional space is created later in the painting. Thus I had to use a "bulletproof" lighting scheme that I had a lot of experience with. We did try a seated pose, but he's a very tall man, and I wanted some sense of his height. But the horizontals in the lower half also help to balance the verticals in the upper half, and the pose on the edge of the desk helped make a very formal situation less so--for his prominence, the Admiral is a very accessible man. Too, I only had a three-quarter size format to work in, so this compromise in pose let me sneak in a little more of his height in a limited frame size.

I've gone on too long, but these are some of the things I was thinking, as you all have done in your own work. As usual, there are aspects I might have handled differently, but I'm glad and reassured that you guys think it works as well as it does.

Enough from me, but thanks again.--TE

Tom, thanks for being so generous in your explanation of the process. Very helpful!

I am amazed at the amount of cobbling together you had to do with all the different reference material. Not that it's unusual for an artist to have to do that, but you've assimilated the various elements, the environment and lighting so well together that it looks like a completely believable, unified environment. You made it look effortless, which I know it wasn't.

I concur wholeheartedly about Marvin's comment: the whole painting looks very real without being photographic.

I was also wondering about your lighting. Thanks, Linda, for bringing that up. What kind of equipment did you use? Do you have two soft boxes, one for the main light and one for the fill? And did you use a "snooted" accent light as your skim light on the right edges? I may have a couple of VIP portraits coming up in the next few months and I'm trying to learn everything I can to prepare. If these commissions happen I'll be buying some serious lighting equipment, so I was wondering what you use.

Thanks again for sharing this beautiful painting with us, and the information about your process.

Tom,

Let me also congratulate you on this fine portrait. I too agree with everyone's comments. Your brilliant solution to the composition and setting of this portrait is so natural and comfortable, so that the viewer would never detect the trouble you took to conceptualize and unify all the disparate elements. I also appreciate your soft toned and not too photographic realism. Bravo!

Garth

Michele--

I'm a dinosaur in that I like tungsten floods. A number of artists have recommended various strobes to me, notably the White Lightning brand--saying that the modeling lights correspond closely to the final strobe results. But I like to see what I'm going to get in advance; it makes it easier to experiment for me. I use a large softbox for the main light, a conventional umbrella for the fill, and a cheap tungsten bulb in a cheap aluminum reflector for the skim light if I use one (I don't always), with barn doors--not "snooted"--to keep it from reflecting into the lens.

When I go outside, I use natural light. It's a lot trickier and less predictable, but I just haven't seen a convincing painting that has an artificially lit subject with an outdoor background painted in behind. I'm sure someone's done it, but I can't seem to pull it off to my satisfaction.

I'm looking forward to going digital, in that I will be freer to experiment in "grab it and go" situations, and won't have to rely so much on the same approach. Painting personal pieces helps here also.

Hope this is what you wanted.

Garth--

This is high praise, given what you've been posting. Thanks so much. If I might be hit with your lightning, I'd stand outside a lot.

Best--TE

Thanks, Tom, for that information. Very helpful!

Tom you are such a master with a uniform. This one will win you some wonderful kudos!

It is just lovely, I wish I could see it up close and personal.

:thumbsup: Beth

ditto what Marvin said

beautiful work, Congratulations Tom
Linda

Tom,

This is absolutely wonderful--my new favorite painting of yours! This is how uniforms and suits are supposed to look in paintings. I especially love the skin tones. You've obviously mastered the palette! Did you venture beyond the palette when creating these lifelike skin tones?

I hope you will enter this painting in upcoming competitions; I predict prizes in your future!

take care,

Renee

Thanks, Renee--

As usual for me, the palette is an amalgamation of all of my influences. I tend to put out what I perceive I need dictated by the environment and light I'm trying to capture, rather than starting with a set of mixtures.This is both good and bad. It means I benefit from all of the traditions and practices that have gone before me, but it also means a lot of feeling my way from painting to painting. It betrays a lack of discipline, maybe, but keeps me learning. Perhaps it's the best I can do.

Skin tones will bedevil me 'til they carry me away. Sometimes I'm on it, sometimes not. I'm not sure it's a function of palette as much as it is maximizing painting from life. I only know it's way easier to capture something believable when the person's there. I'm never totally happy with my skin tones painted from photography. So I try to always at least finish from life unless it's a posthumous piece.

Thanks again--TE