|
The business suit in portraiture
The business suit has to be the least interesting element in portraiture. A suit is a suit is a suit is a suit. If you have seen one havn't you seen them all?
Artists often emphasize the body with disproportionately long arms and legs, large hands and shoes. They draw the head undersized and the body elongated. Interesting portraiture focuses on something unique in an individual. The head and face capture personality yet 90% of the canvas ends up being the generic, stiff, routinely posed body clothed in the ever-dull business suit. Any number of heads could be interchanged with these suited dummy bodies without detection.
At least unbutton the coat and strike a pose, maybe add some interesting light and shadow from a window, fireplace or candle. Or maybe add the glistening of water from a nearby glass, bottle of vintage wine or rain hitting a window? Wrinkle the suit with folds from a relaxed posture instead of the typical postmortem-totem pole stance. People are more attractive when they are relaxed anyway and you know they want to look their best in a portrait.
Are we artists with creative license and imagination or mere technicians?
|