Good Looking Mugs!
Painting portraits is one of my favorite things to do. I’ve spent many hours painting tribal members of the Washoe tribe. It has honed my skills and given me insight into painting portraits. People often say to me, “It’s like you’ve captured their spirit.”
I’ve noticed some things about capturing character in my subjects. Painting a photo of a person whom you have not met is different than getting to know them in person. I take special care to notice the expressions of my subject.
Some of the many things I consider are lighting, colors, wrinkles, contour, texture and how the face changes between a smile and a frown. These things help me identify the person’s true character. Later, in the studio while painting, my memory recalls those subtleties to help bring that person to life on canvas. The subtleties are important.
Prisma pencils, acrylics and oils are my choice of mediums for portraits. I’ve spent as little as one day up to several weeks creating a portrait. Much of that depends on medium, size and the style I choose. Hyper-realism for example might take longer than a more surrealist approach.
