This was a treasure hunt.
I had 14 photos from family shoots emailed to me to scavenge a workable pose. My dad is one of those guys who tosses your present in your lap at Christmas and says..."here". He is a good laugher but sort of sits in corners and watches, more than he bubbles and charms. Maybe shy would even work.
Of the photos, all the smiles were looking down at things like presents, blankly staring at events off frame, but this one had animation. There were colorful balloons behind him and I thought of keeping the shapes for energy. But I ran out myself.
I took the photo and digitized the tension in his cheek up. I widened them so they were on the edge of a smile. I raised his brows a little and widened his lips. They are all subtle but make him alert, if not cheery!
I find gravity a force to reckon with in elderly (gad that is sounding hard to use on my family!!!) models. A head tilt will leave a drape of flesh that you want like mad to tug back into alignment with the skull, but it does not belong there. With the "Les" effect
I did learn to use a lot of light and shade, instead of definite wrinkle rendering, treating the slack skin more like drapery than emphasizing the minutiae.
I am still not sure I am happy with the eyes. The higher eye is completely draped and the inner lid is visible, but I had to wait for drying to render it. Going smaller than a #6 brush tends to make me lose the pulsebeat of the model for some reason.
I used Studio Products base #9 underpainting and did a burnt umber tonal underpainting. I went in again to lift some values because I wanted to use the glazing liquid.
When I began the glaze, using full bodied paint, I was actually giggling at how really quickly the flood of blood into this cadaver picture was jumping to life! I thought this would be a piece of cake... like 20 minutes of finish and I was done! Then the modeling of colors. No free lunch!
I usually work alla prima and that, plus Maroger's medium, have left me a bit unprepared to work into wet paint. I was really happy at how nicely the whole piece did work when I went in, no matter what stage of layering. The darks, especially the eyes, are going to have to be much dryer for the detail but I am very happy with finally figuring out how to fully use the materials. This is a much more blended and somewhat softer piece than I am used to. Not the BEST choice for a craggy old guy, but I must say it is still glowing with blood under the skin!
Linear Mode
