Chase and Peyton
 

A while ago, I posted some of the prep work for this portrait. Here is the finished portrait.

And some details:

Peyton

Chase

Little Hands and fingers:

As predicted in the finely wrought preliminary stages, it's very beautiful, an instant heirloom.

I've always wondered which of double subjects gets the painting eventually. Did you score the canvas down the middle for an eventual Solomonic disposition?

Steven:

Thanks for your comments. From the start, it was my hope that someday these girls would fight over who gets the portrait - not to sow seeds of dissention in their family, but hopefully to have them like and value the work that much. We shall see... :)

Michael,

You have done a wonderful job on this portrait.I really feel that the background works beautifully with the design and subject placement.

Could you speak briefly to the colors and approach to decisions about this background?

p. s. The only solution for this family is to order another double portrait. In the interest of long-term familial harmony, of course.

Chris: Thanks for your comments! The color scheme for this portrait was determined by the client's home. The floors are dark hardwood, the walls are a cream yellow and a tuscan orange - the furniture, side mouldings, and crown mouldings are mostly dark wood and leather.

The actual dresses are blue. When we began discussing the portrait, the cool blue of the dresses became a concern for the portrait integrating into their color scheme. We made a decision to make the dresses yellow in the painting, and minimize the background detail to make the painting look more elegant. This meant an all warm color scheme for the painting.

In the underpainting, you may recall that I had a lot more light showing in the background behind the girls. I got a tip from Bill Whitaker about that - he felt that that sort of "light flare" behind the head was more of a photographic look and that the portrait would look "more real" if I did something else for the background.

He advised me to look at some of the more famous portraits and see how those artists addressed backgrounds. I looked at portraits from Bouguereau, Ingres, Raphael, etc. In many of these portraits, the background was often a single color with little if any value variation.

So I ended up with a background that I feel gives the feeling of space behind the girls - a slight graduation in value from bottom to top and a slight reddening of the hue from bottom to top.

The actual background is not quite as dark as it appears in the photos. You don't quite lose the edges of the hair in the actual painting, but the values come quite close.

I hope that answers your question. :)

And yea I agree, they just need another portrait to keep both girls happy!

Michael, the painting looks wonderful. It wants me to take the girls, especially the younger one and give them a big squeeze. I agree the parents should commission another painting. Having only one will be asking for sister

Enzie:

Thanks for your kind comments. :)

Dear Michael,

What a beautiful painting! and such sensitive work on the fabric/shadows falling on fabric. (I'm looking at the shadow of the thumb as I write this.) And what a nice feeling between the two girls. This is really splendid work, Michael.

Linda

Linda:

Thanks for your kind words. Aren't you going to be in Bill Whitaker's class in April too? If so, then it will be terrific to meet you and spend a week together learning. That class is going to be a great experience. :)

The family should commission you to do two individual portraits, one for each girl. This one gets bequeathed to a museum!

Michael,

Beautiful portrait. I love the way the dresses are painted. I've been anticipating the final painting since seeing the wonderful preliminary drawing.

Steve

Michele: From your mouth to God's ears.

Steve: Thanks for your emails and suggestions for ASL in Denver, it was good to talk to you and thanks for your compliments here too. :)

Michael,

I continue to come back to this painting again and again.

One of the things that intrigues me is how you dealt with reflected color. Although the girls' dresses were blue, I know that you were, at least in the underpainting, engaging in a "black/white" monochromatic foundation.

Did you abandon the existing color resource? Did you incorporate some aspect of it? In your finished piece I see no color disharmony at all. How did you arrive at the color expression in your finished painting?

Michael, I see the influence of William Whitaker on your work. This piece has the smooth coolness that I like so much in his paintings.

Chris: Well, bless you for coming back again. :)

I really did struggle with this portrait, and changing so much color in the piece worried me for a long while into the process.

In the end it was the values that made the difference. Because I was working in monochrome in the underpainting, I had a value scale for the dresses. I made a nine value scale with the blue colors as I saw them in the dresses. I then did the same with three hue variations of yellow comparing each value with the corresponding value in the blue to capture a similar "intensity" or chroma between the yellow and the blue. I selected one that worked the best and went with it. I also specifically looked for areas where the blue was playing into the flesh tones and warmed them up instead.

Another thing that gave me some challenges was that in my original reference, the girls are not together. I had to put them together and get relative sizes as Peyton is two years younger than her sister and their sizes in the reference were the same. I also had to figure out shadow interplay between the girls as they needed to look like there were right there together. It was tricky.

Chase and Peyton
 

It's a beautiful painting Michael. The way you've described the color scheme in the room allows me to "see" it installed. It must be breathtaking.

Jean

Jean:

Well, it hasn't been installed yet. I just got a frame for it yesterday and am taking it to a 4-day show that starts tomorrow. It will be the centerpiece of my display and will likely be the first place the client sees the final. I will deliver it after the show.

That is one of the problems of being a portrait artist -- all your work goes home with someone and you are left with nothing to display at shows! So I took advantage of the opportunity of having finished the painting so close to this show to have it and display it before waving it bye bye. :)

Beautiful Michael. I was waiting for it. The background on my monitor looks black, but in your reply you said it was reddish. Could you share what colors you used for the background?

Alicia: The background is:

- Raw Umber plus black towards the bottom area
- Raw Umber plus asphaltum in the middle area
- Raw Umber plus asphaltum plus cad red light plus just a little bit of white on the top area

Overall, it is not as dark as the picture represents it. For instance, you don't lose the line of either girl's hair against the background. They come close, but there is about a 1 or 2 value difference between them.

Thanks Michael,

I used Gamblin's asphaltum in the drapery of my current portrait. I love this color. I think it is now my favorite brown.

Double Delight!
 

I admired this painting for its composition and execution before reading how you changed the dress colors and worked from two separate sources. Now I am amazed!

It has been said that there can be only one main focal point in a strong painting. This is a serious challenge to a double portrait which I believe you have met by allowing the younger girl to smile so brightly, while her sister is more poised.

You cleverly avoid the "floating bow" syndrome by connecting light areas across their hair.

This should win "Best in Show!" and will probably rotate between family members to avoid a feud.

Floating bow
 

Jeanine, what is the "floating bow syndrome"?

Michael, in my former life as a custom bedroom specialist, I spent many hours in client's homes. Choosing fabrics, color, and accessories (I made many of them). In some cases entire rooms were based on a painting. In this case you've accomplished the impossible in creating the focal point of the room after the fact. Impressive!

Jean

Re: Floating bow
 

The "Floating Bow Syndrome" was defined at the ASOPA/NYSOPA Contemporary Portrait Festival this spring as a light area floating above a head of dark hair with no apparent connection to the face. The design in this beautiful portrait avoids this problem.

Floating bow
 

Thanks Jeanine, I appreciate the information.

Jean

Jeanine:

Thanks for your kind words and your explanation of "floating bow syndrome". :)

Jean: I swore I would never paint a painting to go with a client's decor. Hunger and mortgages makes people do all sorts of things they said they never would do. :)

Michael, I know of artists who get a giglee made on canvas of their favorite works and frame those for shows. Around here it costs about $300 (not counting frame) but it's worth it if it's your best work.

Michele:

Thanks for your suggestion. I have definately considered doing that. I am trying to find a new quality source locally for transparencies, scans, and the like. The source I used before has really dropped in quality and I had to have them redo my last painting twice before they got it right.

I actually have a clause in my contract that says that I can borrow the painting back for shows every now and again and that the client will make reasonable efforts to get the paintings to me. This worked well just this weekend when I borrowed back four commissions for a big show here in Denver. Actually, many people are thrilled to have their painting in a show. :)