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.