Teeth Showing - Page 3

Tammy Nielsen · 07-31-2002, 09:52 AM

Lon, did you ever look at John Wayne's teeth? Awful. I painted them and they looked alright but I wondered why he never fixed them.

Marvin Mattelson · 07-31-2002, 08:15 PM

The old masters probably didn't paint smiles because most of their subjects were missing their teeth.

Cynthia Daniel · 08-02-2002, 09:13 AM

I've created a new topic called "Liking your clients?" in the Cafe. To continue this subject, please post over there. http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...&threadid=1077

Thanks!

Leslie Ficcaglia · 08-20-2002, 11:38 PM

At the risk of reviving a topic that may already have been chewed to death, I wanted to point out that no one can maintain a natural-looking smile while sitting for hours at a time. My first attempt at an oil portrait depicted my teenage daughter, who posed for me while I painted, and her final expression was bland and uninspiring. Then I began working from my own photos in which I typically try for more spontaneous expressions. Particularly with children, that seems to involve a smile complete with teeth. That look works well with my specialty of "portraits in a natural setting." Personally I really enjoy portraits of children with infectious grins on their little faces, although that may not be to everyone's taste. However, I do think that if the masters had had Nikons we'd see a lot more teeth in their paintings.

Jim Riley · 09-20-2002, 11:37 PM

Some time ago I posted a portrait with big teeth on this thread and recently finished the face on the attached painting. As you can see he did not worry about showing his short, crooked, and stained teeth. (Quite a difference) Years ago I worked with this former exec and remembered the ever present smile and knew that a closed mouth would be uncharacteristic. Friends and strangers to the subject don't seem to notice or comment about them.

Jim Riley · 09-20-2002, 11:41 PM

Close up of the above.

Leslie Ficcaglia · 09-21-2002, 08:03 AM

Beautiful job, Jim. It's amazing how much the unique positioning of the teeth in a subject's mouth lends credibility to a likeness. If you'd given him perfect teeth (not that you would have been tempted) it would truly have fulfilled Sargent's comment about a portrait's being a painting with something wrong about the mouth.

Lon Haverly · 09-22-2002, 03:15 AM

I was commissioned to do this portrait of a man whose smile only showed his lower teeth!!!

Lon Haverly · 09-22-2002, 03:18 AM

This was the only photograph available of this man. Sometimes you just do it.

John Kittrell · 10-12-2002, 01:03 PM

While I respect any artist's right not to show teeth, I agree with Tom Edgerton that if it's central to the subject's character, just do it.

A lot of my subjects don't take themselves too seriously and the ones who are very animated sometimes look more natural smiling than not. So I do paint smiling portraits as well as unsmiling ones. Most people want some sort of pleasant expression.

Smiles shouldn't be considered a big no-no. I've done some research and find we're in pretty good company. You can go back to The Laughing Cavalier, but also in today's world I have pictures of smiling portraits by: Everett Raymond Kinstler, Dean Paules, Daniel Greene and Robert Schoeller. Not that they necessarily do a lot of them, but they do do them.