His Worship the Mayor of Tauranga
 

This is a portrait commission of His Worship the Mayor of Tauranga Districts New Zealand. Size: 540mm x 400mm. Archival Oils on a linen panel. Painted mainly from reference photos with one initial sitting to complete the line work and a final sitting to make likeness amendments. I have attached a couple of detail images. All comments very much appreciated. Thanks Jayden.

Hi Jayden,

This is indeed an impressive figurehead you are representing. Congratulations on such an important official portrait! Being American, I am intigued and fascinated by the level of pomp and circumstance implied in the official garb of the Mayor iof Tauranga. By contrast, and I've painted a recent Mayor of Philadelphia, around here mayors are more interested being seen as a man of the people in ordinary dress. I guess it comes down to a political statement dictated by a respective cultural tradition. I think the pose and composition is marvelous. He seems as a king.

I wonder whether the background is completely resolved yet. It is quite nebulous. I am trying to find justification for the yellowy-green effects in the background cloud, as I don't know the intended association of that color usage. I imagine that a background representing a specific setting could be equally stunning, though more work to execute and subordinate.

Thanks for sharing this. I love the use of color in the garments! I wish you the best of success.

Garth

Hi Garth thanks for taking the time to look over these images i really appreciate your comments.
This portrait was done to hang in the public halls with all the photos of past mayors so i tried to keep the general layout used since the early 1700s similar so it would fit in with the overall display. I had discussed (and mocked up) using the mayoral chamber as a background but this idea was passed as his PA wished to keep the theme of the historical photographs. The yellow/green is actually the colour of the wall where the piece will be hanging i try and tie paintings into the scenery as much as possible although im not sure if this is good practice. The frame chosen is a very large chunky frame in mahogany so it really pulls the reds from the garment and compliments the yellow/green further. As usual i think this image isn't completely finished but the customer is happy with the result so i guess i need to sign it and get onto the next project. I guess what i was hoping to get from posting this painting was some criticism on technique or areas that i need to work on on my next project.

Much appreciated Jayden.

Jayden,

This is a beautifully painted figure with a lot of humanity and dignity. Congratulations on this commission!

With regard to the yellow-green background, I have a few thoughts that might help in the future.

The two factors here that influence the treatment of the backdrop are:
1) The wall is yellow-green.
2) The light on the Mayor is cool.

Whether you want the wall to read as a literal plane, or as an abstract backdrop, the color and light need to make perfect sense in relation to the figure. The color of the wall in the light would have to be yellow-green + white and cerulean blue or some other lightening, opaque, cool color. The color of the wall in the shadow will appear warmer, though it is mixed from both warm and cool components, You could use cad yellow deep + ultramarine blue. You could add black or umber to neutralize or warm the color. White would adjust the value relationship between the light and shadow areas of the wall. On the shadow side, the figure and wall should almost become one thing, not only in terms of edges, but also in terms of color. On the light side, the color has to appear to be a lighted version of the shadow color, whereas right now it does not appear yellow-green. It is the color of something in the light that gives the viewer the correct information about how to read the color. If I do not see "yellow-green" in the light part of the wall, I will wonder where all the yellow-green came from in the shadow. Hope this is helpful!

Thanks Alexandra

As the customer signed off at the last sitting im a bit hesitant to touch it further although i would love to get stuck in and find a solution. Im keen to learn from this so as soon as i got home i tried some samples using your advise above.
(My daughter also helped by dragging a plastic pony over the wet canvas and onto the carpet while i was cleaning up :)

Ive worded my trial below:
Cerulean Blue / Naples Yellow Hue touch of umber and white in the light area and Indian Yellow / Permanent Sap green mix dab of Burnt Umber in the shadow with a touch of Jaune Brillant showing through in the transition and shadow area.

I also did a cad yellow / ultramarine blue test but really struggled controlling the area in the darkest shadow where i need to create unity with the red gown resulting in a muddy purple/brown in the shadow area. I will continue to experiment using your advise and hopefully in my next painting you will see an improvement.

Thanks Jayden Dickinson.

Jayden,

Cadmiums are very hard to control and this is why a lot of artists stay away from them, preferring less intense colors of the same hues. I use them because they seem well balanced against blues and violets, but there are other possible choices that might work better for you.

Actually, I suggested cad yellow deep rather than cad yellow...try it in a color mixing test and see if it is not an improvement. The reason cad yellow deep works with ultramarine blue is that it is closer to a complement, but will still give you a convincing warmer shadow for yellow green if you mix the correct proportion of the two colors. If warm and cool are exactly balanced, you will get a nice yellowish grey that can go from very dark to light depending on your use (or lack of use) of white. With slightly more cad yellow deep, it warms up, and with slightly more blue, it cools down. You may not even need brown, but if you do use it I would suggest umber or something not too orangey. The part of the shadow closest to the robe will pick up some red from the robe, so that could be worked in. Again if you prefer not using cads, you can probably find other colors to substitute, but W&N cad yellow deep might be harder to match.

Now for the robe. The folds in shadow can be modeled by mixing the same blue+orangey-yellow (without white) to make a dark grey, then mixing that with the red robe color. If all the shadows are consistent, the painting will hold together and you can get nice soft edge transitions in the shadows because you are using the same combinations of colors with variations in the mixtures.

I know it can be very frustrating to mix these strong colors so this may not work for you. The main goal is consistency in color. The last thing I would want is to suggest something that resulted in you messing up this wonderful painting!