I’m still a long way from putting brush to canvas. In fact, the canvas may not even be up on the easel yet. I’m finding it useful to ‘spend’ more time working up an iPad sketch of the overall pose. Here are a few glimpses of that sequence.
Living too far from Biloxi for regular painting from life and lacking a good photo for a portrait, I had to develop a suitable composition from bits and pieces.
As a starting point, I selected this photo of Dad in a characteristic setting — at the kitchen table, managing his projects via telephone. He’s a master at persuasive phone calls – and is even better at advocating in person.
A Favorite Photo of Dad. Basis of Portrait Composition. 2011.
Problem: while this made for a strong, natural-looking composition, we needed to nix the green shirt & broad smile for a bit more formality — and adjust the foreshortened hand and table, caused by being too close when taking the photo. After sifting through piles of images, I selected these as as further inspiration:
I liked the idea of a navy or black suit, combined with the classy informality of an open collared white shirt. (One of Dad’s favorite looks.) These photos also include serious, yet pleasant, facial expressions, as well as body positions similar to the St. Patrick’s Day image.