Deidre J. & Emily E.

Deidre J. & Emily E

"Deidre J. & Emily E."
Water Missible Oil on stretched Canvas 9x12'

Portrait of my wife, Deidre and her chick, Emily Elizabeth. This is my fifth attempt at a portrait of Deidre and the first I am reasonnably happy with.

Emily came about when Deidre came accross an abandonned clutch. She brought the eggs in, made an incubator out of a heating pad and a lamp. Most of the eggs were just eggs but one had life as I found out one night at four in the morning when D. woke me up to have me listen to the little creature chiseling at its shell. I am affraid I was not as enthusiastic about this miracle of life as the proud mother, by late morning Emily emerged. Painted here, the miraculous chick is several days old.

The Process

In my limited sculpting experience I had already discovered the thin line between pretty and ugly, and I found it to be true in painting as well. Recreating the delicate features of woman is a great challenge, at least for me.

Draft 1

The general concept is there but the scale, orientation and the proportions were wrong. The light was coming from too many places.

I was trying out oil paints so there is a learning curve there. As you can tell I reused a canvas from an anatomy class.

I am working with a water miscible oil paint made by Lukas which are gentler on the environment as you can thin and clean the paint with soap and water instead of petroleum products. An additional benefit is that you don't have the toxic fumes.

Draft 2

Proportions are getting better, though still have not figured out the light. It is harder to correct in oil. With acrylics one can cover up mistakes. It looks like oil requires more planning for what I want it to look like. Drawing before painting is becoming unavoidable. Heading towards the classical discipline of the seven layers perhaps?

Draft 2 was not intended as a draft but it became one as what was in my minds eye was not getting to the canvas and the winter coat was taking up too much importance.

For the actual portrait I did a drawing first, but I wonder if artists use something else besides pencil as it tends to bleed through which does not matter for the darker colors but gets irritating with the lighter ones. Something to be figured out.

Finally narrowed the light source to one which gives the glow I was after.

I am growing appreciative of the peculiarities of oil such as slow drying and transparency, a lesson in patience. At least I don't have to crush, grind and mix my pigments to make the paint like the ancients did..