Sharon Knettell - Thanks for your kind words! I know exactly what you mean about artists using high contrast. I had no choice in this one because there was so much bounced light everywhere. Without the light next to my wife's face I had absolutely no shadows at all so it was definitely challenging. Whenever I get into a situation like that I always remember what I read in Richard Schmid's book. He says something to the extent of, "If something isn't an actual light source itself...you can paint it". So I figured I could paint it...and if it didn't turn out I could shift the blame from my lack of skill to the lighting scheme.
Thanks again for your encouraging words.
Chris Saper - Thanks! I definitely love working in a defined amount of time because the portraits definitely do have a certain spontaneity to them. In my training I would sit all day working on a cast with minimal deadlines so it's nice to have a little fire started under me every once in a while. Thanks for the comments about the article too. Something about being in the paper is definitely fun...although they made my wife's face look weird in that picture. She doesn't seem to mind though. Beautiful and certainly not vain...what more can a man ask.
Marina Dieul - Thanks! The blue is actually from an imprimatura (almost a wash layer) from another painting that I started on that canvas. If you scraped off my wife's face you would see the remnants of an old brass pot or something. I abandoned that still life, scraped it off and used the canvas for my wife's portrait. I don't have a specific tone of imprimatura that I use for all my paintings. I do a different color or value depending on the painting.
Alexandra Tyng - Thanks so much! I'm glad that you like the colors because I was actually struggling with those a lot on this painting. It was so hot in that place that my wife was getting flushed. All I felt like I could see on her skin was red and more red. Using artificial light didn't help any either. So the color was definitely a struggle so it means a lot to me that you found it successful. Thanks again!
Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco - Thanks! These are the colors I use in my palette. Ivory black, Ultramarine blue, Cobalt Blue Light, Viridian, Raw Umber, Asphaltum, Transp. Oxide Red, Terra Rosa, Alizarin Permanent, Cobalt Violet, Cadmium Red light, Yellow Ochre, cadmium yellow deep, cadmium yellow light, and titanium white. Although I don't think the palette has as much to do with the speed though. I think the speed has most to do with the drawing. If I can get the values and edges correct at the beginning then I am usually ok. I spend a long time on the drawing. For the first 2 hours this painting looked horrible. Everyone kind of passed over it and looked at the other finished work I had hanging up. It is only within the last 45 minutes that the painting started to "come alive". I spend a long time adjusting the drawing. I think the most important thing is knowing what color and value shape you should put down and knowing what kind of edge it should have. Color is secondary really. Bad color, I have found in my own paintings, is usually a product of improper values.
Allan Rahbek - Thanks! Yeah it definitely was crowded in there. Probably 500-1000 people passed in and out of the studio before the night was over. I definitely stepped back a lot. I have found that I need to be standing when i paint...I can paint sitting down but I don't prefer it. I like getting back and getting a general impression of what I'm doing. Often times I find it's the big things I am really messing up as opposed to the details. There were some periods of time I couldn't step back though because people were literally an inch from my back...one guy could have rested his chin on my shoulder hehe. Some people offered advice and things too. It was fun to meet all those different people and talk with them but it's definitely not the situation I would choose to paint in all the time.
