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Sue
Linton
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Archibald portrait entry creationBetty Linton OAMPage 1 of 1
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Entries for the Archibald Art Prize require that you have at least one sitting from life ( rather than painting the portrait all from a photograph). I had about four with mum as she is obviously easily accessable. I also used photos as I went along. I prefer to paint from life although I have to work from photographs for my animal and many of my other portrait commissions because the animals won't stay still long enough and it isn't convenient for many people to sit for a portrait. Over the last few years I started a group where we do regular portrait painting sessions from life .We organise a model to come and sit. Photographs have their limitations. Generally the dark areas come out darker than they should be and with no detail or colour and the lighter area are just a pasty pale boring colour. When you are painting from a model you can see many colours in the flesh and details in the darker areas. I use these session to experiment with colour and practise getting a likeness. We only have the model for 2.30hrs so there isn't enough time to get a really refined result. I generally don't touch the paintings when I get them home. They are my fun portraits that don't have to be finished. I use the experience and knowledge I gain with these life sessions playing with colour etc to help me inject some extra interest and zap into my commissioned portraits painted from a photo. Click here to see some of my life session portraits - scroll down to the Contemporary portraits at the bottom of the page. My more conservative commissioned portrait are at the top. If you would like me to create a special portrait you can decide on the style you prefer. I was lucky with this portrait of Betty Linton OAM as I had the freedom to decide how I wanted to present her in the painting. I wasn't restricted to what the client wanted. I asked mum at the end what she thought of it but I told her I wouldn't change what I painted as this was to be my view of her. I wanted to capture a younger mum , I wanted her to be alert , have personality and the portrait to be very colourful. I didn't do a massive portrait as I had to fit the portrait painting in around my usual commissioned artworks so I didn't have a lot of time. So here is the finished portrait. You can see its progression from start to finish below. I had several pose changes in the early stages.
Betty Linton OAM 40 x 50cms Oil on gallery wrap canvas
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1 - Deciding on a pose and getting the proportions right in the first life session. I do a blue underpainting in acrylic paint as it dries quickly so I can correct things easily. |
2 - The end of the first life session. It looks harsh as I ran out of time to do the eyes and mouth but we were both tired and the portrait was starting to go downhill so I quit while I was ahead! |
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3 - Once I got home I realised I wasn't at all happy with the likeness so I redid the underpainting from the photo reference. I am usually very careful to get a correct likeness at the start but it was mum wasn't it! It should have just flowed.. wrong..durr |
4 - Here it is at mum's where I was painting. It was very cramped . I had to open the toilet door and back into it to try & get back a bit to see what I was doing! |
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5 - Here's the portrait photographed as it looked at the end of the 2nd session. Once again I haven't done the eyes or mouth yet. I was happy with the colour. Notice I have changed the porrtait . I am constantly correcting the portrait as I go to get a better likeness. |
6 - Aargh!! Disaster.. This is how it looked in normal light! The same painting as the previous photo but in daylight. The room where I was painting had a yellow caste to it so when I thought I was putting an orange colour on the painting I was actually putting a pinky colour on. So back to the drawing board and fix the colours in my studio from the photo..grr |
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7- Another session from life. The photo taken in the ' yellow room'. Her eyes and mouth roughly done. |
8 - The actual colour a little further on |
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9 - I decided the previous pose didn't really give much scope to have you connect with her and was a bit too harsh so I changed the pose again. |
10 - The finished portrait - more engaging and a better likeness to a younger mum. She's 81 now. |
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To read about the portrait as it was created and my comments at the time go to my Blog or Facebook page. The previous two links should take you straight to the start of the portrait so you can read posts from then to the latest. |
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