Vignette

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Mr. Ahmed Ali Ismail from Egypt is a post houmous vignette.

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

I am so sorry for not seeing and commenting on this earlier. I like it very much. It is full of personality - yours and the subject's, and it is an expressive and moving portrait. I really like the use of lines, and the exploration of the shapes of things - i.e the exploration of two-dimensional shapes as they honestly come across on a flat surface. I also really enjoy the blue you created for the jacket and the background, and also the merging of the two so that it becomes a harmony, a colour composition as well as a portrait. It's a strong and appealing painting, Enzie.

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

What colours did you mix for the blues, by the way?

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Thank you Thomasin for your wonderful observations!

My reference was a step beyond an awful passport photo style, with a straight on pose and a fuchsia background. I really took a lot of liberties and tried to loosen this up as much as possible to give it some character and breath some life into it. This was an experiment in stepping out of my comfort zone and loosen up a bit. I can't paint in the manner you do (loose style) and usually feel much more comfortable with a very controlled palette of flesh colors and tight application.

I used Raw Umber on the underpainting, Cerullean Blue and Terre Verte at some stages, but I can't remember what else or in what order. I'll let you know when I remember again.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Thomasin, I mixed the colors out again and it was definately Classico's Cerullean Blue and Windsor Newton Chrome Green toned down with grey (mixed Flake White and Micheal Harding Black).

Towards the end I also dry brushed some of the skin tones over the fry background. Hope this gives you an idea.