You know? You are amazing to watch, you watch you paint wondering where you are heading with the painting, and suddenly a couple of strokes and it all comes together! ~ Sue Taylor
This comment on my portraiture has remained with me ever since. Sue made the comment to me when I was finishing up my oil painting of Frank.
I’m not one that has found it easy to share a lot of work in progress images as often what happens in between is not the final result, having altered and evolved over a long process. This is particularly so in my more abstract pieces. If I feel that my work connects with an audience during the creative process, I find it halts the process and I often feel as though I cannot go on.
The comment made by Sue, above, found a new insight into the way I work and has encouraged me to focus on my process, thus sharing my works while they are in progress.
Portraiture is one of the genres that I find fascinating. I have been drawing and painting portraits for years now. I met Sue when I came to Canberra from Brisbane I had the pleasure of attending an ASOC (Arts Society of Canberra) workshop. ASOC is a great wealth of art workshops and information, and is one of the many fantastic places to start when arriving in Canberra and looking for art groups.
I find faces fascinating, they tell a thousand stories, and I love to try and capture that whether it be via painting or drawing.
Similar to many other artists, I will warm up in my portraiture by methods of blind contour drawings or when I’m feeling particularly tight, I use the twig method, another great loosening technique discovered at one of the many workshops that I have attended with Sue.
This commission piece was created for a client of mine, who has kindly agreed to allow me to share the end result with you.
Starting with a faint outline I begin with shading (interesting lines when doing with a twig!). I love the dripping effect that naturally occurs in the duration of this process.
Once that has been roughly noted onto the paper, I then layer the ink building up the areas which beckon more detail.
Once that is established, I finish the artwork by emphasizing the elements of the hair and eyes of the portrait.
These are my two favourite elements of a portrait, so I take a great deal of time considering these parts. With this particular portrait, his eyes are so kind and jovial, so I was particularly wanting to capture that on paper.
So here he is, 99% of the painting was completed with a twig, the finer details of his inner lids of the eye and mouth being completed with a small brush.
After this I think I may continue to paint with a twig on occasion! I thoroughly enjoyed painting in this style.
My focus shifted from over thinking the elements of the portrait to enjoying the process one step at a time.
Do you paint with tools other than the traditional paint brush? I’d love to hear about it, leave a comment below ~ K
Fantastic to see how this portrait grew KF. Using a twig too. Thank you and the sitter for showing this.
Hi Sandy, thanks for visiting! It’s interesting to look once it’s done and see the difference in each step. Have you ever painted using a twig? ~ K