Four Siblings

[Alexandra Tyng]

Thank you, Mary and Thomasin!

Mary, to answer you question about photographic distortion, I tried to correct for it while taking photos by standing as far back from the group as possible. I stood about 15 feet away and crouched down slightly so I was only a little above the taller children's heads (standing). I was trying to minimize the foreshortening of their lower bodies. Still, there was a problem of the children on the couch being quite a bit smaller than the children in front of the couch. I think this was due to the fact that I had to adjust my zoom lens to a wide angle to get everyone into the group shots. The distortion was lessened when I zoomed in to more like 55 mm (old-fashioned equivalent) and focused on one or two in the group. I played with printed copies of the figures, printed at different sizes, eyeballing what I thought looked right. Garth Herrick came over to my studio to see the progress and he thought I could go farther in minimizing the difference in size. (It always helps to have another artist's eye!) I just kept going until it looked right. I then made a photo-pastiche of the children at corrected sizes, and planned my composition and canvas size from that. I hope that explains my process.

Thomasin, glad you appreciate the panel on the screen. When the children's mother sent me pictures of their living room, I was immediately enthusiastic about using the screen as a background, but I didn't want to make the panels all dark (too flat) or completely alternating (too repetitive) Picking out one panel to catch more light seemed like a good solution, also drawing attention to the action in the center of the portrait. Thank you also for mentioning the recent PSA award!

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Alex,

It sounds like you had your work cut out for you. You did a superb job given all the constraints. Thank you for explaining the process of how you developed the painting.

[Tom Edgerton]

Alex--

THIS is a stunning painting...

as much for what isn't here as for what is.

My first reaction is that it blows most of children's portraiture since the Boit Children out of the water.

I appreciate your insight into the decision making process too.

[Alexandra Tyng]

You are welcome, Enzie.

Tom--thank you ! I appreciate your feelings very much. BTW, your portraits of children are among my favorites, possibly for some of the same reasons.