My ninth painting and third portrait, on a 30x40cm cardboard canvas. It took me almost 9 hours in two parts. (I don't step back often enough from my painting for sure!) The photography I used for the painting, a girl from India this time, is one that seems to be from National Geographic: https://www.pinterest.dk/pin/203436108146200331/
I wanted to go more in the details but I had two big issues, which refrained to get me further. First, a defect in the fabric despite the priming I need to understand (the rip on the forehead), the second the complexity of color mixing, particularly on the canvas for the skin tones. I stopped when the girl's face looked good enough from a small distance, and then focused on finish her hair and eyes.
In term of techniques, I did not do imprimatura as Ferne Sirois suggested but got back to painting dynamic lines directly. Very early I got to finger painting with black and white.
Interestingly I messed the proportions too and at the very beginning, the girl was looking like a teenager, with smaller eyes and thinner nose. A trajectory that was easy to fix, until colors are added.
Comments
Nice painting! I really like the expression in her face
Thank you both for your comments. :)
@Voy: Yes, this certainly is due to the poor quality cardboard canvas and lack of priming. On one hand, I keep on exercising on cheap material, on the other hand I shall be more careful on preparing the foundations of the painting. I just wiped and canceled two other paintings with the same materials, and went more generous priming the canvases twice. Let's catch up in a few days to see the results. :)
great job!
It's too hard to paint to portraits for me.
Thank you Jin!
We all have our favorite subjects and themes. We look forward your portraits too when you are up for those. :)
Nice shading and details. I love how you can see the dimensions in the face.
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This is sheer excellence Romain, what a great painting and so real. I watched the original and they look like twins! Concerning your fabric, maybe this has to do that you use cardboard canvas iso a normal canvas? It might well be that double priming was needed AND with quality gesso. I finally found a budget supplier for my quality canvasses, double primed, and never had any issues with them. Please continue to dazzle us with your loveable portraits!!