My friend generously posed for me over a period of 3 Mondays. The aim for this year is to paint more from life, especially people. It’s one thing painting from a picture and it’s an entirely different thing painting from life. I find the pose naturally shifts over a session and trying to get the overall features down before they move, sneeze, smile or any other minor shift, is a real challenge.
I also found this painting to be very finicky. That’s the other goal: to be more general with my portraits, broad strokes of colour. Ultimately, I want my portraits to transcend it being simply an exercise of portraying an accurate depiction of the sitter and be something greater than the sum of its parts.
Session 1
Session 2
Final session.