You would think that if I love this man so much, I should be able to paint him in my sleep, being an artist of moderate skill.
Here is a nice piture. He is smiling, not a big "Howdy!" smile, but more like, "I'm happy in this moment" kinda smile.
So...I begin with a sketch....that looks like T.D. Jakes! I should have known right then, this would not go well.
So, instead of correcting the sketch, I forge ahead. I remember thinking something like, "I like those paintings that use broad strokes and are a little wonky, but still capture a feeling. I'll just do that!"
But I can't do that. If I could I would have stopped right here. 
But his eyes are HUGE. and crooked.
still crooked.
Here I stopped for longer than a week. It sat in a chair in the breakfast nook, creepily staring everyone down that dared to eat a granola bar without permission.
Gerald was creeped out the most and kept turning himself around in the chair, like a TimeOut for bad paintings.
Well, it's already terrible, so let me swish colors onto it. Green, blue, red,orange and a little dab o' yellow.
He looks like he suffers from Bells Palsey now, but colorfully so.....
Let's fix that. He is black, so lets just even his face out with a little black. (also that might cover some of those crazy colors)
........hmm
Oh Jeez. I am just done. It kinda looks like him, doesn't look like an ax murderer, and doesn't look like he had a stroke. Yep, done.
ps. I don't mind sharing that not every painting is a masterpiece.
1 comment:
Awesome work! Not that you liked the painting, but that you worked! Quality follows quantity, as we both know, so the fact that you've started is GREAT!
In this series, I think the biggest step forward is from the one where his shirt isn't painted to the one where his shirt is blue, and the reason I say this is because you made the left side of his face (as we look at the picture -- his right side) is closer in value to the background, which reduces that "cardboard cutout" look a great deal. And even though he's black, skin is often shiny, and the light reflecting from his (or anyone's skin) can be quite light -- lighter by far than the skin tone.
My own painting took a step forward when I advanced from "What color is it?" to "What color light is reaching my eye from that spot?" That can also be a way to bring yourself to paint more transparently. Even though your subject isn't transparent, transparent painting looks pretty cool. It's hard to force our brains to paint something that isn't "there". But try it on a tiny piece -- and apple or a pear, say -- and see if you like the effect.
E.
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