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FT Pro, Mem SOG,'08 Cert Excellence PSA, '02 Schroeder Portrait Award Copley Soc, '99 1st Place PSA, '98 Sp Recognition Washington Soc Portrait Artists, '97 1st Prize ASOPA, '97 Best Prtfolio ASOPA
Joined: Jun 2001
Location: Peterborough, NH
Posts: 1,114
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Indeed, in many museums around the world I have noticed many unfortunate portraits with a "five-o'clock shadow" on unlikely subjects. I can think of two possible explanations for this:
Firstly, some artists unwittingly may have used a "fugitive" red pigment, i.e., a red that turns black with age.
Secondly, the artist may have made the underpainting too dark and/or didn't put enough of a paint layer over it. Oil paint is translucent in nature...not opaque as many people assume. As a painting ages, more and more of the underlayer begins to visually emerge. Mostly this interesting characteristic of oil paint enhances the painting, but sometimes it makes something goofy happen, i.e., an extra arm emerges, a "five-o'clock-shadow", etc.
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