Rays portrait

Ray
20 x 30cms
Oil on gallery wrap canvas

 

Here's one from the archives.I was going to post the reference photo but I can't find it..grr

You can also have me paint portraits of people- friends , family members etc.
Some artists can paint dogs ok maybe cats , less can paint a good horse and even less can paint people well-they may do a nice portrait of a horse but the rider just doesn't quite cut it.
Because I regularly practise painting portraits from a person in a live sitting rather than a photo I can provide a more natural portrait than someone who has only painted from photos.
When you are painting from 'life' you can see things a photo can't - photos make everything look very flat & 2D , with no depth.The dark areas of the face are often just drab/ blackish and the light areas pink or white.
When you are painting with a person sitting in front of you your eye can see there are all sorts of subtle colours in those areas. With regular practise and experimentation I can use this experience to liven up my portraits painted from photos so they look more realistic.

Ray had cancer. I painted his portrait from an earlier photo taken with a flash but I used more colour and made him younger and happier.
At his funeral the portrait was placed on the coffin as a nice memory of better times and it now hangs on his wife's wall where she can remember the good times they had.