"Your cyber source for artist news and education!" © 1998, 1999, WetCanvas!

APPLYING THE THEORY

Ted sent me the following picture with this message; I have just finished the attached, trying to reflect your ideas, but am not happy with the result. Perhaps because the work was painted by a committee, namely my wife and sister-in-law, who insisted on the graduation gown for his apparrel thanks....Ted

I set myself the task of not interferring with the integrity of the drawing as I do not know the subject. In other words I shall use only general principles and a simple computer graphic program.

Fig 2

First I try and imagine the feeling Ted and Audrey have in mind for the subject. Like all portraiture if I am wrong in this the whole exercise will be an abject failure - but here goes! Step one - I isolate the portrait element (Fig 2). Next I adjust the values of the isolated portrait by deepening or dropping all the values using a sliding percentage scale (mid-values the most.)

Fig 3

As the head is angled I add a piece to the shoulder to parallel or echo (pattern) this line. Next: I experiment with the chiaroscuro possibilities ... (Fig 4). I like the strength in the angled neck (Fig 5) but this disappears as the dark background is too close in value to the deeper flesh tones on the face. Since the face is highlighted in the front I cannot fully utilize what I call the 'Rembrant effect'. (This is using light against dark on one side of the face and dark against light on the other and thus creating great depth.) Instead I am forced into a mid-tone graded background.

Fig 4                                                                Fig 5

The gradations I use (Fig 5) are echoes of the colors I already have in the face and the gown. This is the safe way to construct backgraounds for portraits.The tinge of green on the top right is my discordant complimentary which I make certain is perfectly matched in value to the orange on the left.

Design - why offset the face? The modern - moving foward feel for the youthful visage - and such a vibrant and intelligent looking young guy needs the 'space.' It also allows me to counterpoint the design on the left ... As you will see if you go to ... [ Lesson Index ] [ Previous Lesson ] [ Next Lesson ]