When I first began to paint I was fascinated by what I called "body language." I was painting figures but I wanted their body posture to express the story...no need for facial recognition. It's been a long time since I painted such but when I came across a photo of my daughter-in-law and my two grandsons I felt it was the perfect composition to paint.
Notice how the three figures form a triangle that keeps the eye in the painting? See how both boys are obviously looking at (what?) something out of field? The hand of the standing child reinforces this but a bit or orange brings the eye back to the people. There is a story here.
I roughed out the image with pencil and then an under painting of acrylic. These were colors that I wanted to leave peeking through the final colors but at the same time they gave me a sense of light and dark as I progressed.
Now I got a little braver with the colors knowing I could cover them if not appropriate. I think this is the time to take chances and be color bold! It's only acrylic!
Now I switched to oils for that wonderful oozy feel of mushing and blending on the canvas. You can tell that the rocks are getting more realistic and I am working towards a better flesh tone on the figures as well as directional lighting. This is the stage where I sit back and make a list of my own critique. Such notes here might include: correct child's pointing hand, fix mother's hand on back, correct mothers hair highlights and so on. I need time to evaluate, clean my eyes and step away so that I can see the adjustments needed.
Here is the final portrait. I adjusted the items mentioned but also the light direction in background. How many triangles do you find in this composition? Lots by my count. I was very pleased with this piece. It's renewed my interest in painting figures that tell a story.
As the original became a gift to my son and his wife I had a giclee made to give to the in-laws. I am not a fan of giclees (they lack the human touch and thus the vibes that original art gives off) but I knew that I was not going to paint this again. The giclee process was interesting and took numerous adjustments on the part of my print guy to get all of the colorations correct. He was good and patient but it was not a process I was fond of...(perhaps if I were making millions of posters I might do it again) it was a lot of work to register each face's color to look like the original. But done! and I learned a lot.
Cindy Michaud Art
Questions? contact me at:
art@cindymichaud.com
www.cindymichaud.com
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