I cannot recall ever having seen a better portrait.

Simon

Dear Renee, Heidi, Michele, Mark, and Simon,

My goodness, Thank you all!

Michele, I applaud you. Your Governor portrait is more than stunning and deserving of its universal appeal.

Mark, I think you hit the nail on the head. This did seem more like a scientific investigation than a painting in progress at times!

Simon, I am absolutely tongue tied. I know you are sincere, yet there are many great portraits preceding this that surely beat this handily, at least to me. But thanks!

Garth

WIP images of this portrait:
 

Increasingly there has been an interest in seeing this portrait as a work in progress, and being able to discuss aspects of the portrait in greater depth.

Here's a link to an active critique discussion including four WIP progressive images scaled with the completed portrait. One will have to scroll down the page to view them. The images have the advantage of being in a higher resolution than can be presented here on this Forum. There is also a much higher resolution image at the start of the discussion link, making the portrait clearer to view than ever. There has been quite a lot of feedback and exchange regarding this portrait there, and I thought it would be beneficial to share the link for those interested.

Regards,

Garth

I liked the way you developed it very much, I didn't think you started with those colors because once you mentioned the use of greys.
Great painting Garth.
Thanks for sharing this, and I'm looking forward for the other WIP too.

Thanks Claudemir. I used no grays or grisalle underpainting. There is nothing wrong with that approach but it is not for me at this time. In fact most of this portrait was very directly painted in full color development, once I had an inkling of where to position the colors.

Here is a link to the high resolution image at thestart of the linked discussion. It's sharp, revealing flaws and all! :!

Garth

Yeah! that's a show!
I had already visited that page when you gave the first link.
Tell me Garth, how long did it take to paint that?

The first toning washes were applied on December 1st, about five weeks before the unveiling on January 6th. That's enough time, right?

Garth

Thanks for posting the link to the WIP shots. It helps me to understand the process you went through in creating this truly magnificent portrait!

.

Dude, Thanks for the peek into the process used for this piece. No matter what anyone thinks of this style of work, you (your work) obviously resides at the high water mark that others will compair and contrast as to what can be accomplished in oil paint.


Garth wrote:
Edit: Actually David, I kind of recall that it was around the time of your discussion about using tonal relationships to commence a painting that I was getting started on this. Come to think of it, you influenced my painting!


Let me know if I can help you out on any of your future projects.