I mentioned in a post a few weeks ago that I’d been inspired by one of my mother’s photographs.  I won’t show the source photo, because #1 it isn’t mine and #2 I don’t know if the subject would appreciate it.  I will show the painting, however, because I don’t believe anyone outside of my family will know who it is, and I do not mean for it to be unflattering.  I know the expression on his face isn’t the typical boring toothy smile – but that is exactly why I liked the photo.  The expression – the emotion – in the face was so complex and interesting. 

This piece would be another on poplar plank.  For the first time I used my new transfer paper.  I’m still getting the hang of it, so there were some spots where the transfer didn’t go as planned, but overall I think I got a much more accurate starting drawing this way than eyeballing it.

As usual I didn’t know what to do for the background.  There were some trees in the source photo so I started with some green, and added some leafy shapes.  I didn’t want to get into too much detail because I wanted the background to stay a little fuzzy just like in real life.  Even the highlights on the leaf tips seen below might have been too much.  The interesting thing about unfinished poplar is that thin paint bleeds into it not unlike regular paper stock.  The leaves seen below took hours because of the slow build up of paint.

Next was the shirt, which didn’t take as long because it was lighter and thinner with more broad areas of color.  I had fun painting this because after doing the last two large canvases it was a blast to just hold the poplar plank in my hand and get up close with a tiny brush instead of sitting on the floor and leaning in until my feet go numb.  I know these photos show this painting sitting in a (crappy) easel, but it didn’t stay there when I was actually painting.

and then it was time for some skin…

and then more work on the skin – some stubble – some pupils…

And finally the finished piece:

There are some problems with this, and these problems stopped the painting from actually looking a lot like it’s real subject, but if you didn’t know the man you probably wouldn’t know that his left upper lip wasn’t that small or his upper right cranium wasn’t as pointy.  Or his hair as orange.

Oh – and dad might get a kick out of this – based on some sketches I did last night (during a group teleconference for school no less) I think my next painting might be of …. the great cthulu…