Best use of live sittings?
 

If you are able to have the subject of a portrait pose for one or two live sittings in addition to having photo references, what times during the process would make the best use of these opportuinities, and why?

I would do one sitting at the beginning and one at the end. The beginning one would be to establish overall color areas and the end one would be to tweak the color, especially in the very light and very dark areas that may drop out in the photos.

Chuck,

What an interesting question. I rarely have the luxury of live sittings in my commissions, although I recently had the opportunity for a 3- hour sitting at about 80% completion of the face.

I thought this was an excellent time for me to have the input, a I had already traveled a long way in drawing, color and edges, so I had something on my canvas that could really be tweaked. I think that earlier sittings, at least for me, wouldn't have been as productive.

What a good question! I've never had the time, or in some situations, the money to have live sittings and have wondered if there were ways to skip the model at certain times. I take a bit getting the likeness down, so I figured taking pics right away may work, so I'd be able to get the likeness plus play with darks and lights before introducing skin tones. I'd hate to take 3-4 hours getting to a certain point, realize that I've spent too much time and money and then relying on photos for the important parts of the piece, simply because I can't afford it.

I'm dying to take part of a model marathon on May 23, where it'll be the first time I've ever used color from a live sitting. The model will be in place for a three hour pose, then break for a half hour, then, I believe, continue the same pose for another three hours. I'll be concentrating on the face, so if they take another pose, that'll be fine. I will post them and see what you guys think.

Jimmie,
I am excited for you and to see your painting from life. I know you will fall in love with the process and that you are ready to move to this step.

Good Luck, and ENJOY!!!

This all depends on the pose and whether or not it includes the figure. I have found that seated poses, even shot with a good Nikon portrait lens have a tendency to be distorted. This can be a function of the level of the lens, the pose, or optic distortion. The camera simply does not see the same way as the eye. Simply stated the eye scans, the camera sees from a fixed position. This is not so obvious with drawing as you can design the rest of the figure in a more linear fashion. However when you add color, it become more solid and the distortions are much more obvious.

That said, I would first check all my proportions at the beginning, making sure that they and my drawing are accurate. I would use the model for this. A beautiful head on a poorly drawn figure is always a beautiful head on a poorly drawn figure. You can then use your reference photos to design the light and dark areas, clothing folds, hands, details, etc.

Use the model of course as much as possible for color. One way to erase some of the fear from painting from life is to find the cheapest model available to practice on. I have found that model to be myself. David Leffel has made a cottage industry out of that. He does one self portrait a year. He has a rotating list of galleries waiting for the honor of selling that annual oeuvre.

My personal effort, however is resting happily in the local landfill.