The same sitter, a second commission
 

This is the portrait I have completed a couple of days ago, oil on panel 32x24.

I have already made portrait of this sitter, but the previous one was commissioned by the local University. Upon seeing the finished work, my sitter commissioned another portrait for his home, in a different pose. So, this is it.

I tried to take photos of the painting in different light conditions and in different time of the day; I moved the painting around my studio, on my balcony, I tried lot of things... However, I couldn't get the right colors with my Canon 300D, neither the things could have been corrected in Photoshop.

In this particular photo the painting was laid horizontally so the light was coming from the side of the sitter's face (that's why the top of the hair has more glare than the rest of the painting).
The sitter's tie is washed out to the point of complete whiteness. I didn't want the darker areas to be very dark in the photo, so in consequence the very light areas became litterally white.

A very fine work. Beautiful!

Could post some close-ups?

Wow! :thumbsup:

Valentino this one is as great as the first! Did you or your model have a favorite?

Congratulations on another beautiful painting.


Side note: open your PhotoShop large file (hopefully a tiff) duplicate the layer, then get the "burn" tool, which looks like a hand and you can go over the glared and washed out areas to bring back some detail. Let me know if you need any more info about this - or maybe you do this already.

Valentino,

This is a tremendous portrait. I like it every bit as much as your first one, if not much more! It's so clean, simple and direct, which enhances it's strengths. Every passage seems so well executed, and the color harmony is very satisfying. I want a closer look.

It was a generous treat to see how your first portrait developed in stages. This portrait has a lot to offer in that respect too, if you have such images showing it's progress. I am fascinated by how you approach and develop your very intricate and complex portraits.

Congratulations on your success with this sitter. I hope this leads to many more portraits (hopefully some of other people too)!

Garth

Dear Valentino,

Many congratulations, well deserved. I am so thrilled for you to have gotten and delivered such a beautiful piece.Bravo!

Valentino,

I loved the first one, and am just as impressed with this one!

Jean

Thank you all for your very kind words.
Here are a couple of close ups plus two photos of the early stages of the work.
Elizabeth, thanx for the PS tip. The Burn/ Doge tools are very useful ones, indeed.
Garth, I am so flattered by your words. I do hope that this work(s) will bring me more portraits of other people, too :sunnysmil

There were a lot of problems to be fixed in this painting. I've done this portrait from photo (and my experience with the previous painting.) There were two lighting source, the right one cooler than the (viewer's) left, and that couldn't have been fixed.
So, I have to compensate for that, and evaluate how the temperature of both light and of the shadow of the cooler, harsher light source would be if they had been the same as the left, softer one. I didn't want the unnatural hues or values jump on the sitter's face.

I contrived the background, and had to calculate the influence of that imagined greenish hue to the colors on my sitter, particularly on his face and highly reflected polished necklace.

Than there was the perspective of the table which was a bit distorted on the photo (notice the first stage of the painting). I haven't noticed it at first, and perhaps majority of viewers wouldn't noticed it too, but I felt it had to be corrected so I made some perspective drawing on the tracing paper and modified those until the table looked right.
And so on. But it paid.
My sitter was very pleased with both the first and the second portrait.

Terrific work, Valentino. Congratulations!

A pleasure to see a second one, Valentino!