Portrait Artist Forum - A fellow artist.

The internet is such a great means of meeting my client base. I ran into this energetic lady, who runs a rapidly growing internet forum herself, at a workshop in the Boston area. In spite of my sputtery start in the business of portraits, for some reason she thinks I am very expensive. I explained I have a healthy pricing structure when I do large pieces but am very affordable, as I offer 10x8" pieces as well.

She was amazed and commissioned one but was at a loss to send me a good picture, or one she was comfortable with, so I went through photos of the workshop and found a few. Most had a camera in her face as I would assume her pictures of me did by extrapolation. She also had hoped her mouth was closed. Her constant smile made that impossible, but I listened carefully to the cues of what she liked and didn't like about herself.

My reference was from a bar photo on our last day. Flash and flare, I went to work with my photoshop and came up with a very traditional composition, suitable for the size and medium. Reluctanly, she couldn't find a better photo so she enthusiastically gave me my head.

I have a bad trademark, which I must now say I have outgrown, of very tight cropping. I hate backgrounds so much I fill the canvas with face and hope nobody will notice. My first go was a dud, or so it seemed at the time For a woman who didn't want her mouth open, it was ALL teeth. AND apparently I had seen blue eyes in the photo but hers were gray-green. This is the final which I changed a lot and eventually submitted.

http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v...tightlorgr.jpg

I never showed her, but went right to a monochromatic underpainting using the original composition. I have a propensity for blue. It seems to keep my flesh a bit more warm, that does not make sense.

http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v...ns/bluelor.jpg

As a fellow artist, I showed her this stage and while I was drying, I worked a bit more on the first piece and showed her both at this stage. She was not unhappy with the things I was.

Finally, I did the rendering on this using my Studio Products three part system which always amazes me for its ease and drying properties and sent them off.

Luckily she picked this one. I am learning a lot of professional habits by mistake! One lifesized sketch before the finish was not the original intention but it was a piece of cake to do the final.