Brian's portrait - Homeward Bound continued

Last post I'd got Brian's portrait to this stage. Much as I loved the yellow water it couldn't stay as it was drawing your attention away from Brian's face. I also wanted it to be the end of a stormy day and have some atmosphere. I wanted to capture the mood of the day.

I haven't done a lot more to Brian's face since this photo - maybe added a little colour in the following stages. I am now just setting the stage to get the atmospheres I want and bringing the rest of the portrait up to the same standard of finish as his face.

Remember I did his face almost to completion as I didn't want to be chasing a likeness at the last minute. In retrospect I'm not sure that was the right way to go as it made the rest of the painting harder but it's all finished now..

Here is the original photo that inspired me. The painting is going in a portrait exhibition so although I like this photo I needed to show more of Brian's face without the hat and sunnies. 

I told him the portrait wouldn't be the most flattering .lol's 

I wanted to get the feeling of a long day and the weather worn sailor. 

As I said earlier if the portrait was a commission I would have made Brian look even better than in his photo!

  I used 5 different photos to come up with this painting. One for Brian's face , another few for his jacket , another for the background , several for for the lighting on the water and more for details etc.

 

Below- One of the photos I used for his wetgear-  I changed the colours a little. Sorry Brian - a very unflattering photo!

 Below - I've done some more finishing on his rain jacket and started on the lighting on the water. I've also done a bit more work on the steelwork of the boat.

Unfinished

Below-  A bit further along.

 I've got the overall scene and background as I wanted but felt we needed something more on the LHS of the painting so I started to paint the mainsheet ropes and blocks in. Beforehand I spent a couple of hours in photoshop playing around to come up with an idea without actually painting on the painting.
I'm still not 100% sure but I've started. It better work or I'll have a big repaint of all the sky and body it is covering..
Boy I'm leaving it late. I have to deliver it 'dry' before Friday..!

Below - Here it is with the rigging finished.

I quite liked this effect with him behind the rigging as I felt it gave a more 3 D effect but the diagonal rope was distracting so I removed it. Luckily it was still wet so with a wet turpsy rag I managed to wipe off several hours work..sigh..The under layers were dry enough not to come off.

Below-

Finally - finished - I think.. I added extra highlights on the RHS of his jacket where the sun would have hit it and put the other side in shadow. In reality it was overcast when the photos were taken so I had to use a bit of artistic liscense!

 Homeward bound

 46 x 60cms 

Oil on gallery wrap canvas

Flambuoyant Francis our Monday model

 Flambouyant Francis
c 30 x 40cms image
Oil on canvas

Yesterday we had a lovely lady as our model at portraits. She was elderly but looked fantastic and is an actress and singer. you could tell as she gave us a lovely pose and held it beautifully.
She describes herself as flambouyant Francis..We have another male artist in the group who is also an actor and singer ( they didn't know each other) and he gave us a rendition of Danny Boy in his tenor voice and Francis joined in for a lovely duet. A lovely way to end the session!

Although it's only a relatively unfinished quick study I feel I have captured something of her personality and lovely translucent skin..My skin won't look like that when I reach her age! Too much sun..

The life of Brian - My portrait for the portrait painters Hunter 2014 exhibition

For this years exhibition we have to paint someone of note.  Brian has retired but was

Foundation Professor of Social Work, University of Newcastle 1990 to 2005; Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University  1997 to 2005.

He is a published nature and documentary photographer.

Brian came along as a model for one of our sessions. Here is my unfinished 2.30hr practise portrait of him. 

 Brian
30 x 40cms Oil on canvas

 I was looking for someone to paint and when  I heard he was a sailor and had sailed around Australia and was soon to sail around Cape Horn I was inspired to ask him if he would agree to let me paint him.

He was happy to be a subject. My partner had just bought a boat in Pittwater near Sydney and we were looking for someone to help us sail the boat back to Lake Macquarie. Brian was keen so I took this opportunity to take some photos of him helming. I had already taken some inside the yacht club but wanted some more natural ones so this was ideal. My portrait is a combination of about 5 different photos.

 I started with another idea at first or at least another face. I was going to place the most animated face I had taken at the yacht club on one of his body helming from the trip home. Although this option would have been more flattering I  decided I would use another photo of his face taken on the trip. Here he is more wind swept and in the sun and it would better create the atmosphere I was after . 

 The painting isn't a commissioned portrait just one I am doing for myself.
If it was a commissioned portrait we would choose the most flattering photo! I have also exaggerated the character lines on his face in this painting. In a commissioned portrait I generally subdue these.

 Here you can see my first choice with his animated face from the yacht club photos on a photo of him helming on the way home. I've placed a rough grid on the canvas just to make sure I don't end up placing him too far to one side.

 I was short of time so quickly under painted the portrait ready to start as the Art Bazaar demo.I usually spend a long time planning something like this but didn't have enough time so leapt in!

I decided on the new face the night before the bazaar. Here is the portrait at the Art Bazaar with the complementary ( opposite colour) underpainting in acrylic and a rough face from the new photo.

 

Below- I'm starting to come back over with Oil colours in the correct colours. 

The idea is to leave a little of the under colour to peek through to make the colours vibrate a little and make the portrait more interesting and colourful.

The hard part is not covering it all up!
Here I have started on his jacket. I realised after I started that he has 2 jackets - a lightweight and a heavy weight. I ended up combining features from both for the best colour and effect. 

 

Below- I have roughly covered all his wetgear and it is the correct colour.

 

 This gives you an idea how large the portrait is. The sun was shining on half of it by now which makes taking decent photo hard. This is how much I got done at the Art Bazaar demo.

Back in the studio I take the time to get a better likeness in the blue under painting.

The wet paint has sheen on it so it is hard to take photos.

 Below is what the painting looks like at this stage.

Now for the scary part!

 As soon as I start putting the Oil colours over I lose the likeness and it goes through the ugly stage-ugh! 

Very demoralising- time to resist frisbeeing it across the room and just hang in there until it starts to look better! lol's

 

Time to put some sunlit highlights on his face..

 Phew .. starting to come good.I'm quite excited at this point!

Getting there!

 I'm pretty happy with his face- not quite finished a bit of tweaking necessary here and there but I'll come back at the end for that.

I need to cover the yellow in the water - It's a pity to lose the colour but it is distracting you from Brian's face and I need the water to be darker as I am planning to put some sunlit .

splashes on it.

 A lot more work to go. Refine his jacket and get some sunlight on it, do his hands and the boat railings etc and generally bring it all together.

 I'd usually work all over the painting at once and do finish his face at the end but I only have 3 weeks to complete the painting so I thought I'd get the likeness first so I won't be stressed trying to get that at the last moment.

To be continued!

My horse Zeuss at feedtime

I have to get a video of him. he always makes me laugh. I whinny at him and he gets all excited and whinnies his head off up and down the scales and turns little 360's and shakes his head..
He still looks pretty good for a 21year old!  Goes well too. lol's sounds like a car ...

I will be painting at the Autumn Arts bazaar Sunday 9th March at Lake Macquarie art gallery grounds on beautiful Lake Macqaurie

Not this Sunday but the next - 10-3pm. Come along and say hello!
 I think I will be painting the portrait for the portrait exhibition as I don't think I will have time otherwise!

I'm doing the sketches for Penta , Raven & Kestral. See the earlier portraits I've created for Carol.

I have started doing sketches for a 3 up portrait for Carol. Carol has a dog training business
http://www.shadowhawk.com.au/
She has about 12 or more dogs she wants to immortalise. Some have passed on others current. I have created 2 portraits already so this will be the third. They will all be on the one wall so I am keeping a reasonably common background scheme.
This one will be off Penta , Kestrel and Raven and will be an Oil on a 35 x 70cms gallery wrap canvas like the others.
Here's a link to the creation of the 2 previous portraits I've created for her. http://www.suelinton.com.au/pages/creationrexhawkandgrizzly.htm

 Here is the first one I created - Rex , Hawk and Grizzly. 

Rescue mission

We've had some really hot weather lately and it's very dry - we desperately need some rain.

I came out one hot day and saw this little kingfisher twitching on the ground being eaten by ants. He must have been heatstruck and flopped on the ground.
I didn't know they lived up here .I thought it was too dry.
I picked him up , brushed the ants off and took him inside and put him underneath the aircon. We were going to ring wires ( wildlife people) but after 30mins he started to perk up a bit. After an hour or so we thought he would be ok so we took him out and here he is sitting on the verandah ready to go. He took a while but eventually flew off. My good deed for the day..

— feeling happy.

A memorial portrait of Mr Shirt

Here is one of my secret Xmas portraits - a memorial portrait
 

Mr Shirt
23 x 23cms image size
framed pastel
'Your work is phenomenal!'
Marshall
Marshall received a memorial portrait of his Old Staffy 'Staff ' last Xmas . He was so touched he thought a similar gift of a portrait of Shirt for his son would be much loved.Shirt passed away last year.

 His son really loved the portrait and was also deeply moved by the portrait.

A pastel portrait of Jimmy

 

Jimmy is a Staffy X Cattledog who's 17 and Leanne wanted a portrait created while he was still around. He was a secret Xmas present.

Jimmy 

30 x 40cm image size

Framed Pastel 

 

'Jimmy is still alive and kicking. 

Leigh loved the portrait. He was extremely impressed.'

Leanne

 
 

 

Here he is in the studio to give you an idea of the size of the portrait.

Meet me on TV!

NBN TV came out and did a segment on my portrait painting.

New website on the way for 2014!

I'm busy building a new website for 2014.
 It's been an extreme learning curve!
There were a few times when the computer was almost fisbeed across the room but I'm coming out the other side and really enjoying it.lol's
It will be more modern and easier to navigate. If you haven't seen my current one have a look -
 www.suelinton.com.au

Koda the Fox

Here's an early Xmas portrait Koda the fox
18 x 25cms image
Framed Pastel
'Candice and the guys gave me Koda (the fox's) portrait last night and it's amazing! You really captured her perfectly. Thank you so much.'
Alicia

Xmas greetings!

The last of my Xmas portraits has been delivered. 3 will be presented tomorrow so I'm keen to hear how they go.
I'm having a short break from portraits and I'm now redoing my website. It's a bigger job than doing the murals! lol's
Hopefully I can have the new website up and running in the next month or so. It should be a lot easier to use and prettier.. I'll be after some user feedback when I put it up but I'll let you know when the time comes. Happy Xmas!
 I'll be in and out of the studio a bit over the next fortnight but you should be able to catch me if you leave a message.

Newcastle Herald photos of the Art Bazaar on the weekend.

 There is a great photo of me demonstrating.



http://www.theherald.com.au/story/1959002/art-bazaar-in-civic-park-photos/?cs=310#slide=1

I'm painting at the Summer Arts Bazaar 9-3pm tomorrow Saturday 7th Dec - Civic Park Newcastle

I'm packed for the Art Bazaar at Civic Park Newcastle tomorrow.Still not sure what I'll be painting. I have a cat's face in Oil as one idea but at the moment I may just finish off Chloe the rottweiler.
The problem will be making sure I make her portrait colourful enough. The problem with working out of doors in public is that if it looks ok outdoors in bright light it will look drab inside with normal light.
I'll have to go with very vibrant outdoors with the demo so in more subdued light it will still look interesting. That's a bit scary as I know it will look better inside but passersby will probably think it's a bit much! lol's
Come along and have a look!

Remi the Rottweiler

The original reference photo.
 I don't often show the photo reference as I tend to ad lib a bit and often use several photos to come up with your ideal portrait.
 Your  portrait will look like your pet but may not look exactly like the photo.
The photo was lovely but not very sharp.
I wanted the portrait to be more alive and colourful than the photo and for her to be the star so I downplayed her collar.
I generally check to see if you are ok for me to make your portrait more colourful. I can do a copy of the photo but I feel my method generally improves on the photo! 

The finished portrait.
Remi's portrait is an engagement present.  
She is a 20 x 25cms image size Pastel

The custom framed portrait ready to hang.

Zeuss & I

Some pics from 2009 when he was in regular work of 2 1/2hr arena sessions a week. I haven't had any photos taken lately and he isn't as ' fit' but last ride he went beautifully so I will have to get some more taken. He is 21 years old now and I've had him since he was 6 years old.

 Above - start of our half pass

 Below - a canter up the track back to the paddock

 A few months ago

 Winter coat

 Checking him out in the mirror..Is he going as well as he feels?

 Below - after the ride I get him to stand untied while I unsaddle and then get him to follow me  ( free ) back to the paddock where he files in and then turns around to face me ready to be rugged etc. The first pic he is following me up to be unsaddled , the next he is unsaddled and going to the paddock..The last ( out of sequence) is him waiting to be unsaddled.He's free in  50 acres of the property.