Tim,

The colors are absolutely rich and stunning. I love the garment and the texture of the stone. Congratulations!

Juggler
 

Hi Tim, this looks almost surreal, has a very dreamy quality to it. How did you come up with the idea for the theme? It seems medieval also. I like it!

Jean

Tim,

The colours of the painting are absolutely beautiful! What colour mixture is that red? It is so rich and beautiful. The texture of the gown is so realistic. Did you glaze or paint directly with this painting? And did you paint this with an underpainting?

Mai

Composition
 

Thank you, I just spoke to this in "compostion" at some length in a reply. I don't know how to do that thread copy trick, sorry, or I would.TCT

I also enjoy open-minded reads of it too.

Administrator's note: Here's the link: http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...&threadid=2648

Chris is in the middle of the Whitaker workshop; she'll be able to shuffle everything around when she comes up for air... the threads are very interesting and linkable.

You've touched on one of the most interesting aspects of critique. I noticed this especially in writing workshops; interesting critiques are very valuable to the artist, and not just referring to method and technique, but also the spirit of the piece, and what the viewer is getting from the less concrete experience of the art.

Colors
 

The robe was painted two or three times. I like my darks to be thin and very dark and for them to recede, but each coat was opaque - the brighter spots are pretty thick.

The skins tones were really easy because when my son was not before me I could use my own hands etc for color checks. There's not much distance from the picture plane to the nose-if you know what I mean. I use so many colors that i frankly loose track but some of those reds were the new "quint." rose and cad red light. I don't use the heavy earthy reds much. one of the best recent aids for me has been lots of good brushes in many sizes - mostly Trekell these days - sables and badger hair. I blended a lot with a prefectly clean brush at crucial spots.

The robe too was hanging around for color checks all the time. The rocks were carried upsatirs and painted from life and were not light. The rocks are really impasto.

Panels
 

Yes, this was done on the panels by Michael Ozog, who's making paint now, very intense paint.

Just a note
 

The image on ARC is huge and shows a ton of detail-should anyone care to see it better.

Simply stunning! I love everything about this painting.