LTC Tong, 20" x 16" Oil on canvas

[Marcus Lim]

Dear all, it's been a while since i contributed my works for your appraisal, and i continue to seek your views with this latest creation.
As i wrote to Rudy Calooy I was given this opportunity to paint this high ranking officer from the local airbase recently. I believe it's possibly the first of its kind in Singapore, because there seemed to be a local policy against "adorning" prominent public figures...anyway, i'm not getting big-headed about it. I just hope to share my developments, and hope we can all learn something new from this.

Thanks for your thoughts.

marcus

[Michele Rushworth]

It looks as if this is not quite finished. A painting can have a "painterly" look but still be refined a bit more in the details. The eye on our left in particular, as well as other details here and there, could use a bit more finish.

Also, when I looked at this composition my first impression was that the plane was dropping bombs on his head.

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Michele Rushworth

Also, when I looked at this composition my first impression was that the plane was dropping bombs on his head.

Hi michele, i think you finally found the pin that's been pricking my mind what was wrong with the pic! I had other ideas in mind when we were discussing what to show in the background of the portrait, and the airforce personnel insisted they wanted the re-fueling planes (the bomb dropping "birds"!)
I did a composite using the photos they contributed, though personally i would have preferred the other composite. Ah well, i sensed they weren't open to other things, and they were happy with that...

I did the head in one sitting, after removing the first try...all in all i had only about a week to do the piece, so i can't really do a good finish for the work.

But just a thought, can i do a more finished work using bristles only?
I have a mind to buy some sables, and someone in the forum recommended Trekell brushes which are relatively cheap, for sables. Anyway, that's beside the point.

Maybe i also still haven't realised the full meaning of "finished work"...

[Alexandra Tyng]

Hi Marcus,

Is this a portrait of a living officer? If this is not a posthumous portrait, you are not limited to working from a few limited reference photos.

First I want to talk about lighting. A well thought-out portrait must have consistent lighting. In your first reference photo the light on the figure appears to be from overhead, slightly from our left. Yet the building in the background is lit from our right. In the second reference photo, the planes are lit from the left overhead, which is more consistent with the first figure. If this officer is living, you have a chance to photograph him at the very least. You need to make sure the lighting on him is consistent with the lighting in your background. If possible, photograph him outside. In your painting, you have minimized the shine on his hair, but if the light were coming from our right, there would be a highlight on our right. That kind of strong sunlight would create strong light and shadow patterns on his face, yet there are none under and to our left of his nose, and the value of the shadow areas of his shirt is not deep enough. To pant these things, you really need a reerence photo that is going to give you the information you need.

The other big issue is likeness. I cannot say you have caught a striking likeness of your subject, though there is a general resemblence. The most obvious problem is that the lower half of his face pulls to our right and the nostrils are deformed. But many measurement problems, such as facial width and relative proportions, lead to this result. Just using a plumb line will reveal many of these problems.

The background could be more convincing. The color of the building, the tarmac, and the shirt are almost the same in your painting, yet they are not in the photos. Making the tarmac darker would ground the painting and bring up the contrasting elements. On the right-hand side, the sky meets the ground in a puzzling way, as though the earth drops off unpleasantly into nothingnesss. Why ot use some of the information in your photos, such as runways, etc., to make this right-hand side more convincing? Also, the blue of the sky is not like the blue of nature. The sky near the horizon is much paler. Try white mixed with some pthalo blue or green. Or white mixed with pthalo blue + a tiny bit of cad orange or orange-yellow. Higher up, you can add more pthalo blue in relation to the white. To get the intense blue high up, mix some ultramarine into the mix. Always check against the real sky because it is lighter than we realize.

There may not be much opportunity to work further on this portrait, but hopefully these points may be useful things to consider in future commissions.

Alex

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Alexandra Tyng

If this officer is living, you have a chance to photograph him at the very least.

Hi Alex, i appreciate your deep thoughts that you're contributing to critique my painting. Indeed it has many issues that has brought to my attention, and better my next paintings.

He is a living officer, and while the liaison officer (the guy from the base who is in charge of this project) could provide many references for me, he couldn't at least get me to allow a photo session with the subject, despite numerous times stressing to him how the lighting and quality of the photos didn't do justice to the project.

So i photographed myself in the lighting and time of day as i thought it would have appeared similarly in the painting's background. With two different reference photos, i won't be surprise if you tell me that it's difficult to try and piece these two different pictures together mentally!

Because as i read your thread here, I thought to myself and realise that i was paying too much attention to my own photo, to try and get the lighting right, than to focus on getting the likeness of the subject.

Phtalo blue? Nowadays i hardly use that because i found it to be really opaque, and kinda hard to work with - kinda how i felt about Rembrandt's Indian Red, yet another unforgivingly opaque color.
So i used W&N Cobalt Blue + Titanium White to get the blue sky.
But with your recommendation, i'd give it another try again.
Thanks Alex!

[Alexandra Tyng]

Marcus, that's really a tough situation if you cannot get at least one photo session with your subject. Did the liason officer give a reason why he would not permit it? If portraiture is not common in Singapore, he might not realize what is involved. Many people think that the artist can work magic!

I can see where you would be tempted to work from your own features. The photo of yourself has so much more pertinent information in it. However you could pair the head in reference #1 with the planes in reference #2. The building could be flipped horizontally and placed on the right side of the compoition if you need it.

You could photograph yourself wearing a white button-down shirt in the same lighting conditions (from above and our left) as on the officer in reference #1. You will have to use a soft ambient light on your face to mimic the apparent flash that is illuminating the officer's face from the front. Forget trying to duplicate the light on the building as it is now--it's too different from the light on the figure. If you get the light on you as close as you can to the photo you're working from, you won't find yourself using the one of yourself except as a secondary reference and for the shirt.

As for the pthalo blue, I know it's not a popular color these days, but I use it a lot in my landscapes.You have to mix it with a LOT of white! Down near the horizon I also mix it with a tiny bit of cad orange or orange-yellow. because these are, I think, the very best colors for painting light, and the sky is filled with light. Cobalt is a lovely color, best in my opinion for painting distant land, but not so good for indicating light. It goes a bit dead and opaque in skies.

Alex

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Alexandra Tyng

Marcus, that's really a tough situation if you cannot get at least one photo session with your subject. Did the liason officer give a reason why he would not permit it? If portraiture is not common in Singapore, he might not realize what is involved. Many people think that the artist can work magic!

You're spot-on about how people feel about artists - esp portrait artists. If i have a penny every time i hear "you can draw from just photographs right?"

Like in this case of the officer, the liaison was pretty uptight with the "security issues", and with another reason that "t's a surprise gift for him" thrown in his reasoning, he kept me away from photographing him personally.

So "my photographs only" rule seems to be the mainstay in Singapore, for what's left in the portraiture biz. I'm on the quest to convert people to the right approach for portraiture, and in many ways as an artist i feel like i'm a early Spanish pastor, trying to convert savages into Christianity!

Thanks for your tip on phtalo blue. I feel like a new convert to the use of that color already!

[Allan Rahbek]

Marcus,
This is uphill for sure.
It looks like the references are taken indoor.
The outdoor light is characterized by the light enveloping the figure.

Allan

[Marcus Lim]

Originally Posted by Allan Rahbek

It looks like the references are taken indoor.

Yes, The reference is a studio glamour shot, no doubt at all. I've seen many such "glamour shots" going around in Singapore...in fact they were a rage a few years ago.