Three new portraits

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Hi Linda, how are you?
I have been painting from life a lot recently, and as I said I grew more confident. At the end of the day is only a matter of practicing.
I do agree at the beginning with the client that there will be live sittings, the more the better, and that I might want to go and paint in the house even if the subject is not there.
I find it very useful, when I am in the right mood everything goes swiftly, I paint fast because I am under pressure, and I can finally see all the purples, greens blues in the face. As you know I work from B&W photos, so I normally make them up a little, but seeing them it's actually much easier. Working from life also helps me to blur the image more. When I paint from an enlarged photo that I keep at 5 inches from my eyes I can see better all the details and tend to paint them, as if I had Superman vision. In the girl's portrait I managed to be quite loose I think.

Now, regarding the client's attitude, it is sometimes trouble. With the excuse of having them signing something to allow me to publish the painting with the name, I have now prepared a letter where I say that the portrait is a cohoperation between us, and that they need to be available. This last lady dragged me on for weeks before the daughter could find a week-end morning for me, I should have asked a big deposit!
But also going there with your easel, your stuff, setting up etc, I have noticed it generates a certain awe and respect that you can take advantage on. You must, I think, pose like THE artist, so that you can say: I am the artist, I will not modify the mouth! later on.


It is anyway very interesting and rewarding to establish a short friendship, especially with the children I paint. I just enjoy spending time with them rather then be always on my own upstairs listening to BBC4 !
Love
Ilaria

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Carol, I don't know what colours Minna uses, I have never seen her painting, but they won't be too different from mine.
I checked you out!! I looked for the work you posted, unfortunately only found one, but I understood why you liked Minna and maybe me.
We paint more or less in the same way, with patches of colours and very little blending. This is a way of painting that is very popular over here, as it was masterly taught by Willliam Coldstream and especially by his pupil Euan Uglow.
I suggest that you buy a book on Uglow, he is an absolute genius with an incredible sensitivity for colour. I learned a lot from his work, and was taught by a couple of his pupils.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...glance&s=books
Just snap it if you can, let me know if you fell in love with his paintings as it happened to me
Ilaria

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Carol, Post scriptum:
You might find it useful to browse around here
www.commissionaportrait.com
xxx
I.

[Carol Norton]

"I suggest that you buy a book on Uglow, he is an absolute genius with an incredible sensitivity for colour. I learned a lot from his work, and was taught by a couple of his pupils."
*******
Thank you so much, Ilaria. I just ordered the book from Amazon and can't wait to get it. So many wonderful things to learn! How lucky can we be.

I have only posted one painting as its photo reference was so difficult to read and received a great deal of help especially in the arena of not using poor photos. (and I didn't want to take advantage of Chris Saper too much). I have done a couple of paintings from black and white photos: two I have completed, one is giving me fits. I am very interested in the fact that you paint from black and whites all the time. ... and... impressed. It leaves the imagination wide open for color choices but I AM struggling with the shadows. I am going to post more as time goes on.

Thank you so much for your interest and references.
Carol

[Jimmie Arroyo]

You have a wonderful style. Very rich. Thanks for sharing.

[Julie Deane]

Hi Ilaria -

I'm really enjoying looking at these paintings. Thanks so much for sharing them. They are really interesting, beautiful and engaging.