Composition question

Susan Ballinger · 04-14-2002, 04:49 PM

My sister wants me to do a portrait of her father- and mother-in-law. She gave me a photo of them dancing at her wedding. But she wants me to incorporate their kids and/or grandkids into the portrait. She thought maybe putting them around the portrait of the couple. Should I advise her against this? Or has anyone been able to do a successful composition of something similar?

Susan

Stanka Kordic · 04-14-2002, 05:10 PM

Well...I'm sighing here...the well-intentioned ideas of our loved ones can certainly bring challenges!

I suppose there are solutions, like find poses of the grandkids with similar lighting to that of the grandparents in that picture. Then, you need to get the kids in proportion to them. You will find yourself poring over all the family photo albums looking for the appropriate shot..Or, you can always shoot the kids in the correct pose and have imposters posing as the parents (assuming this is a surprise).

I'm sure you are kind hearted and want to give this a try, BUT, coming from my experiences trying to complete the impossible requests of my relatives..I say...NO WAY.

Work with good reference where the faces are fairly large and clear with good lighting. Contrary to what non-artists think, we can't just DO what they want without the proper reference. (or maybe some can out there, who am I after
all..)

Encourage something more simple and straightforward. My humble advice.

Peggy Baumgaertner · 04-14-2002, 06:29 PM

Susan,

Invariably the hardest, most complicated portraits will be among the first that you do. I am amazed at the complicated composition problems we get ourselves into. One of my first portrait commission refusals was a commission of nine people with Grandma in a wheel chair...oh!...and they wanted it 14 x 20 inches. I regretfully told them they were thinking of a photograph, and sent them to a competent photographer.

In our zeal to make a sister, mother-in-law, neighbor happy, we end up biting off more than Rembrandt could chew, and usually on our first drive around the block.

In one of my classes, the class hadn't filled, and there were many stations around the model stand. I told one of the students that it would be easier to paint the model on the shadow side rather than the lighted side, and she might want to move. She said she liked the challange. After 20 years, I told her, I'm not looking for challenges. Putting together a portrait is hard enough without PURPOSELY making it harder.

If you want to do a Renoir, impressionistic piece, this could be quite fun. If you are planning to actually doing a by-the-book, make everyone look like themselves, take photographs with the correct lighting, you are looking at 20 miles of bad road.

Stanka and I have been there. I told an artist at the PSA conference, after she explained a compositional horror to me (something about a horses, a driver, and a wagon full of kids...), that she would be better off turning down the commission and painting a slew of head and shoulders portraits to fill her portfolio. She could easily spend the better part of a year in the frustrating stuggle of making this painting work. (Remember, she had painted few portraits, no horses, no wagon, no landscapes...what was she thinking?)

Spend your time wisely. There is far less of it than you can imagine.

Peggy

Chris Saper · 04-14-2002, 10:53 PM

Hi Susan,

I agree with Stanka and Peggy. When you are starting it is hard to say "no", but keep your eye on the long view. Every portrait you do from today forward, should be your best effort to become your best painting. It may not end up that way, but if so, should be for reasons other than poor (non-existent?) source material, or because a client wants something from you that you don't feel you can, or more importantly, want to do.

The only glitches I have had in the 11 years I've been painting, have really come from agreeing to something, that, in hindsight, I should have known not to all along. I recall reading an article sometime ago (if anyone knows the cite, let me know as I'd like to retrace it), called something like "Recognizing Red Flages" in portraiture. Among the red flags were things like poor source material; wanting Ingres, when you paint like Renoir; unreasonbably short turn-arounds, (intoxicated clients, things of this nature).

I now spend a lot of time up front with people trying to understand what they really want, and whether I am the right match for them. We are going to walk hand-in-hand together for some time down the road, and I want both of us to end up happy.

My advice, graciously decline.

Chris

Lon Haverly · 04-17-2002, 10:34 PM

Sometimes you have to know when to say yes, and when to say no. You have to think of your own representation, as well as the clients wishes. There are "yes" compositions, and there are "no" compositions.

It is just a matter of choice. You pick your yes's, and you pick your no's.

Mary Reilly · 04-17-2002, 11:38 PM

I agree with all of the above! The only thing I want to add is that I wish I could be a "cat-burglar" and slip into some homes of people that have paintings I did as a favor when I first started out. These "portraits" (and I use the word loosly) haunt me they are so poorly done. Definitely turn down the impossible - it'll come back to haunt you!

Mary

Susan Ballinger · 04-17-2002, 11:48 PM

I had the feeling it wouldn't work out as she had imagined it, I just needed you guys to confirm it I guess. I asked her today for some different photos to choose from, so we'll see if she can come up with something better (crossing fingers).

Of course we're all embarrassed of our first efforts, but without them, how else could we see just how far we've come? I always remind myself of a picture I have from when I was a little girl. I loved to draw horses, but it was hard for the adults to decipher what the picture was. Someone commented that it was a nice 'dog'. From then on, I decided to add horns to the horses to make them unicorns so that everyone would know what it was that I was drawing.

So I just have to look at this old picture of a unicorn on a scrap of paper to see how far I've come. Of course, I just have to come look at everyone's work here to see where I'm headed.

Thanks everyone!
Susan