Having finished the portrait of my wife, Lira Kay, I thought I would write about the second part of the portrait process, the creation of the painted portrait.

We started out in Part I: the drawings.  And here are the various stages of this portrait.  In total, it was 6 sittings, 5 of which are shown.

State 1

Lira Kay: state 1

I find it disturbing to see portraits that are started and stopped in one session.  The idea of getting it absolutely right so quickly seems to show two things: that there is an ‘absolutely right’ and that it would be so easy to find.  I think the portrait process is a journey, and my journeys involve all sorts of turns and fumbles and questions.

State 1 here is an example of that.  The skin tone has little to do with the hair tone here, which in turn has little to do with the background.  The heaviness of the skin tone sheds light on the importance I place on the face. Read the rest of this entry »