Posthumous portrait

[Karine Monaco]

Tom,

In French, I would say "Chapeau bas !".
This is the first posthumous portrait made from a W/B picture that I look at with so much admiration.
The drawing is perfect, the colors in the background beautiful, and the harmony with the colors of the head gorgeous.
Like David I wish I could see it in person too.

I am deeply impressed and will definitely try your technique if I ever have to work with a W/B reference picture (which situation I try to avoid actually, as the reference pictures are generally not that good).

Thank you very much for sharing your experience.

Sincerely,
Karine

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Wow! That's great!

Lovely colors.

[Tom Edgerton]

Thanks, everyone....

Karine, "merci et les meilleurs souvenirs!"

[Chris Saper]

Dear Tom,

A resourceful approach and a successful outcome!

[Linda Brandon]

Tom, you have done such a wonderful job here. Anybody who has ever tried painting a posthumous portrait with difficult photo resources knows how tough it is to do. I really admire your work on this one and of course I will think about stealing your ideas on one of the projects on my backburner.

Seriously - thank you again for all the information and generosity on this Forum, I know I am not the only one who always learns so much from you.

[Tom Edgerton]

Thanks, Linda.

Everyone here contributes on a high level. The standard for all of our work has risen tremendously since I came back to painting about twelve years ago. This forum is an integral part of that advancement, to my mind. We all teach and learn from each other.

Best--TE

[Michele Rushworth]

Great idea -- thanks for taking the time to share it with us!

David, this is also a very interesting bit of information:

You know Bougeureau - as I understand it - in order to be able to paint those little cherubs, would often go to the Louvre and do some drawing studies of statues of small children to get the poses

I wondered how those old masters got those very young children to pose.