Family Portrait Painting: Part 3

Stage 5: Painting the face and hair. The lighting for Patty's golden hair was ideal; it glowed under the morning sun.

Stage 6: Painting the dress. Her dress was more of a beige color but the reflected color from her surroundings makes it look lavender at this point. I'm curious to see how it looks once the other colors are painted around it. I enjoyed the detail of the necklace and the way it caught the light.

Stage 7: The arms and legs. It was nice to paint the light on Patty's shoulders and knee. After I finish this post, while the paint is still wet, I think I'll add a little more pink to portions of her back leg where the blues seem a little strong. Sometimes just looking at the photo of the painting helps me see it more objectively.

 

Now, its time for Sarah.

Family Portrait Painting: Part 2

Stage 3: Painting the clothes. If you study clothing, it becomes obvious that there can be many reflected colors in them depending on the lighting and environment. For Steve's yellow shirt, there are greens and oranges with hints of blue.  His khaki shorts also reflected light blue and hints of orange.

Stage 4: Painting the arms and legs. In situations such as this, I feel like I've been given a break having  to paint only one full arm and hand with one leg. I did have to give his other arm and leg (partially exposed) my full attention just to make sure that they are believable and work with the composition. As with all my work, I gave it my all but know, deep down, I will soon see things a bit more clearly and will make adjustments and corrections.

Now its time to work on Patty, Steve's wife.

Family Portrait Painting: Part 1

It has been years since I have painted a family portrait and so it must be time. This 36 x 48" painting of the Johnson family will be a great challenge for me. Just getting started with the composition of five figures on the canvas was exciting enough all by itself. My plan is to paint one figure at a time.

Stage 1: Drawing the figures. With a thin wash of paint I used the reference photos I had taken to loosely draw in the family members, freehand. At this point I did not worry about getting their features just right; I was more concerned about the composition and proportions.

Stage 2: Painting the first face. With multiple figures I am most comfortable painting from left to right and so I began with the husband/father, Steve. Painting wet-on-wet, (alla prima), my goal was to complete his face as much as possible. I will work on him more later when I have fresh eyes - plus it will also be helpful to study him in person.

Sunflower Painting

Medley
24 x 18", oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson (c) 2013

Ever since I painted this still life, I have wanted to go back in a rework it. I kept waiting to see it with fresh eyes. At last, this weekend, I took the time to take it out of its frame, mix the paints and get it done.