Julian against the wall

[Alexandra Tyng]

Here's a portrait of my son that I hope qualifies for this section. I painted him about 90% from life in about three sessions. Even though I was paying him a model's fee, he went on strike after the third hour, saying that the position (twisted with head against the wall) was just too uncomfortable. Begging had no effect. So I ended up taking photos and finishing the arms and hands, which I had just roughed in, the bottom of the shirt and pants, and the background. I also made some minor adjustments to the far side of the face. (the proportions were slightly off.)

The odd shadow color comes from an incandescent light source on the left. The idea was that he was "caught" literally against the wall between two light sources, or two immaterial forces.

[David Draime]

Alex,

Ah, teenagers! I've had the occasional student show me this very pose when I've wanted them to get to work. The word that pops into my brain when I see this pose is: obstinant.

I love this painting. The arms are incredible. You have - somehow - managed to suggest the hair on the arms without really rendering it. The paint handling is so balanced - just right. WOW!

...and how big is it?

David

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Alex, I love the pose and entire feel of this work. Very nice!

As David said:

The arms are incredible. You have - somehow - managed to suggest the hair on the arms without really rendering it.

How did you do that?

[Thomasin Dewhurst]

I get so excited when I look at the "new posts" section and see you've posted something new, Alex! And this is so good!!!! There's such a felt way of drawing; really working with the colours to push the face forward and bring the background and shirt back. You have such a love of painting. And a love of painting living flesh. You have a focus, a personal vision which you need to express and brings you beyond making a merely clever painting. And this is not a common thing at all! Your technique has a purpose, it's not an end in itself. You can see this in the boy's face and arms - the richness and variety of the tones, the wonderful true light, and life in the brushmarks. And the design of the whole piece, with it's living, moving shadow - a really good, and not at all odd, colour to keep the face colours saturated. A beautiful expression of a beautiful boy in his living, growing, breathing flesh.

(You just need to look at the left arm and shoulder sleeve edge next to the shadow - a bit generalised and stiff - perhaps play around with obscuring and redefining the edges, giving it more of a suggestion of fullness and three-dimensionality)

[Mischa Milosevic]

Alex, Bravo! Such a handsome boy and I love the way you have handled the values and modeling. I most like the modeling of the hair. I'm not to keen on the catch light of his right eye and his nose. This is not a critique.I strongly second Thomasin.

[Julie Deane]

Very well done, Alex! And, boy, do you have that slump down pat....

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thank you ALL! I'm starting to feel inflated, as if I am rising off the ground. . .

Seriously, this was fun to paint. David and Enzie, to answer your question about the arm hair--I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but I knew to leave well enough alone when I stood back and realized I had painted the hair. I think I was using a wide flat-tipped brush, which I use a lot with hair on the head.

The dimensions are 30" x 24".

Thomasin, I appreciate your enthusiasm more than I can say! Are you really talking about my work? Of course I could say loads of good things about yours, too. I will take a look at that shoulder.

Mischa, thank you for your compliments and your suggestion, too. To tell you the truth, the catch lights don't really bother me but I'll watch for that kind of detail in future work. I noticed that when I'm painting from life, the light strikes me as so much more brilliant than it does in a photo, so I might have gotten a little overenthusiastic.

Julie, yes, we see that slump often. It's funny how, when I asked him to pose that way, it was so uncomfortable.

Thanks again, all of you.

[Vianna Szabo]

This is a lovely painting Alexandra, great pose, good handiling of paint and I love the sensitivity of the piece overall. You can tell that this is a personal painting.

It's great to have live in models!

Vianna

[Lacey Lewis]

Wow! This is awesome, as usual!

I just love the way you render... everything has a feeling of movement and life to it, even the air.

[Allan Rahbek]

Alex,
I saw this yesterday and when I scrolled up from the last reply I knew it was yours from the colors and brushwork.
It is hard to find the words to describe this truly beautifully picture when you have painted the unspeakably that is about the love of color, light and family.