Portrait Update

I am still working on that eye demo, which I should be finished with soon. In the meantime I've gotten a lot further on the portrait. At this point I am technically finished except for tightening up the shirt a bit. The shirt was very wrinkled and I promised I would not draw it that way, so it requires a lot of thought to get looking right. Its a fight between simplifying what  I see and keeping true to the light pattern on his  form.

I also need to photograph it better - despite my 10 MP camera and a tripod, my shots of my artwork are substandard. In this case washed out and grainy.

Update: Thank you my wonderful reader for the photography info - I've gotten a better picture which I added above. :-)

Sorry for the absence last week. The kids and I were off school and we spent our time redoing my oldest daughter's room with "older" furniture.

Sneak Pek

Sneakie Peekie of what I am working on.

Sick yesterday so this week's post will be late.

New Stuff!

Always on the lookout for new still-life items, when I had to go to Peterborough, NH last week I picked up these great ceramic hands at Bowerbird & Friends in Depot Square.   I am not sure how I will use them yet, but I'm sure I eventually will. They are not antiques, which is fine with me - smaller price tag! They were displayed holding place setting names on a set table. I also got a couple of new diner mugs which I am very happy about. If you haven't noticed I have been enjoying getting a little fun or kitsch in my still-lifes lately so these hands go right along! If you are interested in buying a ceramic hand too I found this one online from Urban Outfitters., It is a jewelry stand. http://bit.ly/gkUfK5  & here are similar diner mugs available online. http://bit.ly/f4h0jk They are more expensive than what I paid - but if you have to have it too there they are!

On the same note, the great Design Milk Blog posted some glass straws today, but I was more interested in the glass milk carton she mentions in the post. http://bit.ly/eQSUDn I googled it to see if I could purchase one and to my amazement  (I can).  There were other similar things like a glass ziploc bag! How fun! & don't even talk to me about the food face plate - how fun would that be!? Maybe not for a still-life.... but just for the fun of it! ;-)


Another new thing in my studio  is this cart. I got it last summer but just finally put it in the studio. It is a vintage cart that we picked up from a yard sale for $5! It is in perfect condition, no rust, completely sturdy. Actually it is in such good shape I am afraid to use it! I get upset when I buy something vintage/antique that has made it through the years unscathed only to shorten its life when it gets to my house. Well it was only $5 and is a very good example of why you shouldn't jump right away and buy one of those similar expensive ones made for artists and sold in the art catalogs. I've seen these several times at yard sales so keep a look out for one by you if you like it.

Can't wait to get to my art day on Thursday! See you then!

Nicole

2 Light Sources versus 1 Light Source

This is where I am at after 2 days of work. The plan is  to have just the face and collar area in focus and have everything else a bit out of focus, especially the window and masks on the wall.

I am really happy with the actual figure in this one. I decided to photograph him with the natural light of his home instead of dramatic lighting.  I stood him close to one window with another window across the room. This allowed some strong blue light to hit his face and hair on the right from the close window and filtered, fainter warm light to hit his face from the windows across the room. I like how this lighter airier lighting looks with the young adult, softening him. 

Just to show you the difference lighting can make, below is a portrait I did with my daughter as the model. I darkened the room and used one strong light on her right side. The dark reddish light on the left side is just the reflected light of the one light source bouncing off the other side of the room. It makes for a spooky dramatic effect. Dutch masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer were amazing at using this effect, although maybe they used this lighting because it mimicked their lighting in their homes! Windows or candles! 

I used this dramatic one light source lighting in my Zen series. 

Two Vermeers with very different lighting. Which do you prefer?

check out James Gurney's post on warm and cool light sources and their interaction! http://bit.ly/etxmhu

Beginning of a Portrait

This is a portrait commission I've just started. It is going to be about 18 x 24" and is done with Polychromos on Fisher 400 paper.