Governor's Portrait Unveiling

[Michele Rushworth]

The painting itself took about two months, though from the start of the planning, taking the photos, creating the painting, getting the framing done, and scheduling the unveiling event it was over a year.

The painting is 30 x 43".

I like synthetics over sables because they're springier, hold up better and cost less.

[Mark Lovett]

Michele,
You have obviously developed a very successful system of producing high quality portraits. I hope I'm not driving you crazy with questions. Im just trying to learn from the best. To get such a high degree of accuracy I suppose there has to be very little guess work. When forced to work with photos, such as in this portrait, how do you get such an accurate drawing to the canvas from which to paint into? Do you prefer working from printed photos or computer monitor (if monitor..what size do you use?) or projector...what seems to be working so well for you?
Thanks,
Mark

[Michele Rushworth]

I do a lot of measuring to get things in the right place. I don't use a monitor as that presents me with colors and values I can't possibly replicate in paint (a monitor has a much different "color gamut", as they say, than paint does.) I work from printed photos. One of the biggest challenges I have is getting the best printed photos I can. Otherwise the painted product won't turn out right.