You are so right Marvin; this will be the one I keep.

I liked Sharon's suggestion way back so ended up just redoing this with my reference for Marius' sitting. I think the most inefficient use of my painting time is how much it changed everything each time I changed the background, but I wasn

A historical color note
 

Oil painters before the early 1800s rarely (if ever) painted out of doors since the paint tube had yet to be invented. Paint storage was a major concern and most artisted mulled their paints as needed, although some used sheep intestines as temp storage. They probably used water colors if they needed to go outside for reference.

Marvin, that would be a fun thread for you, well for some of us, if you could start it, to bring up the old tricks. There were a few of us who fell asleep during all the slides during art history, or took trips to Italy to avoid the class room and missed way too much.

Most facinating to me is Renoir''s "The Luncheon of the Boatmen", did he bring all of those models into his studio at the same time? Wouldn't they throw shadow on each other if not? Amazing!

Thank you for the info, you will be a great teacher in June!

Backgrounds
 

Beth,

Correct backgrounds are a very important part of the whole process. I have rolls and rolls and stacks and stacks of fabric. I buy them in 3 yd. lengths to accommodate a standing figure. I recently bought some very large antique Chinese brocades and embroideries for this purpose.

To coordinate the color aspects, I often go to a fabric store or my own pile with a piece of the main garment. I test my subject in front of the fabric or fabrics I have chosen. If the color resonates, I do that color. Once chosen, I do not change the main color of the background except to lighten, brighten, dull it or otherwise subtly play with it.

I find velvet works the best, it maintains a nice even light pattern. Colors I have on hand are various shades of dull green, greys, blues, wine, sienna and black. My next picture will have a cobalt blue background.

Hope this helps.
Sincerely,

Background
 

My personal feeling is that a mid-tone gray fabric for a background (for making the source photograph) is enough. In painting the work, one can manipulate this.

When choosing the background colour in the painting, I want the background to not be more colourful than the face of the person who is portrayed, and light enough to accentuate the silhouette of the person.

Peter

Colors in a painting depend on three things:

1. The local color of the objects being painted.

2. The color of the light.

3. The color of every object around the subject. This will have a great impact on the colors found in the shadows (and to a lesser extent, in the lights). For that reason, I wouldn't change the background color after I began the painting or after I took the reference photos.

Just Grey?
 

Personally, I find the background color so important that I never leave it to chance. It sometimes takes up more space than the figure. The background influences all the surrounding aspects, reflected light on the skin, clothing, temperature of the skin tone etc. It is like painting a landscape at sunset and deciding to change the sky to a bright sunny blue.

You can change the background at will if you treat everthing as a seperate entity, hair, face, clothing etc., then you don't have to relate them at all if that is your wish.

Another approach is to underpaint everything with a grisaille and then fill in with a flat glaze, ie. a simple local color approach. Then you you don't have to deal in color subtleties at all.

The last two I refer to as the coloring book approach.

Sincerely,

And we are all saying?

If you could see this in person, I think you would like it, it is very rich and has much drama. I think it has really caught the person who is Marius.

But what of THIS background?

:thumbsup:

:thumbsdow

I can take it, it's 2003! ;)

Marius
 

Beth,

I think you have done a really heroic job. It is a really strong and moving portrait. Your best so far. The dark blue background accentuates his face, giving it a much more drama in keeping with the subject.

However, a little more attention needs to be paid to the neck area. The paint on his Adam's apple needs to be toned down and softened a bit. The neckline just under the beard needs to be extended to the left a bit to support the head better. Make sure the back of the neck is not lost as the dark hair; if it is lost in the background it will make his neck appear too thin.

You must be covered in paint and your family must think you are about to run off to a hippie commune, but that's what painting does to you.

Great job, sincerely.