Dean, private commission
 

Unlike my previous portrait of the Dean of Zadar's University, which was commissioned by the University, this one was private commission by the Dean, in different pose.
The dimensions are the same - 32x24', oil on panel.

Great painting, very strong. He must be very happy with it...congratulations

Very well done, I love the background as well as the figure, they work beautifully. How many hours did this one take?

Thanks. It took roughly 40-50 hours of applying paint on panel, but actually somewhat more. I employ layered approach for this kind of commission.
Unfortunately, the subtleties are lost in reproduction.

Valentino,

He must have been pleased enough with the official one to commission this one for himself!

I like the simplicity of this very much. The bright colors work well with the subtle colors. My favorite thing about it is the face--the modeling of the features, the expression, and the glowing light.

Thank you. In this case I decided to eliminate unnecessary clutter behind my model, since I felt that by simplifying the composition I will make the painting stronger. However, the picture is not devoid of details, but I tried to play them down by lowering chroma and adjusting slightly their hue to neighboring colours, since I wished that sitter's face remains the main focus of the painting.
There are lot of small compositional devices employed here, however. The sitter's robe is executed using three primaries, and the secondary green is saved for the background. I tried to unify the overall design by careful arrangement of geometrical shapes (mostly triangles) of various sizes and orientation, which are hinted here and there throughout the composition.

Very beautiful.

I had a good time browsing your website too.

Beautiful work, Valentino!