painting: Ruth and Malcolm

[helenic]

Another commission, this one from my parents for their silver wedding anniversary in July this year. It's currently hanging in their lounge (note the Christmas decorations in the photo). My dad got the idea of getting their portrait done when he saw a documentary about David Hockney's double portraits, and I tried to include some references to that series in the painting, although as I haven't seen it I was going largely on description and images found online. The distorted style was a deliberate experiment - opinions vary on whether it was successful.

I don't think it was successful and next time I do a portrait I'll go back to my normal graphic-collage photorealism, but then I might be unduly influenced by the fact that I'm still not happy with how my mother's face turned out. I repainted it several times, and in the end when you have a deadline you just have to stop fussing and leave it be. This painting caused me more grief than any other I've done, largely because accurately representing faces you've spent 21 years being intimately familiar with is really bloody difficult. The picture you have in their head of what they look like is sort of a meld of all their faces over the last two decades, and often deviates from what they actually look like now. There were also endless, endless problems with photo references. Anyway, enough disclaiming.

Malcolm and Ruth, oil on canvas, 30x40" (July 2005)

Comments

[maga-dogg.livejournal.com]

That is pretty awesome. I agree with you about your mother, though - she doesn't come out looking very sympathetic, whereas your father definitely does. In fairness, I've found it's really difficult to stylise the faces of middle-aged women without making them look either haggard or twenty. I envy your handling of cloth and human form, though, even if it is from photos.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

I've found it's really difficult to stylise the faces of middle-aged women without making them look either haggard or twenty

You've just managed to sum up the argh that ate about a month of my summer.

even if it is from photos
I really don't work from life enough, not since I finished my art AS and stopped taking life classes. I'm sure the university run them - I should start going in October. I don't think I've ever done a painting that wasn't from photos, and most of the time I do my compositions in photoshop rather than pencil. On the other hand, this thing makes my art distinctive and enables me to achieve graphic texture effects in paint, which is a Cool and Groovy Thing.

[tephramancy.livejournal.com]

That's lovely, you're very talented :D

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Thankyou!

This is all just a cunning ploy to attract commissions and gain the money of my entire friendslist. Mwahahahaha.

[andyravensable.livejournal.com]

Fantastic. I really rather like that. Well done!

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Thankyou!

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Another excellent piece of work. :)

Agree there's something not quite right about Ruth's face there, maybe too broad or the angles to hard or something.

But you have got Malcolm very well IMO, from what I recall - the particular little turn of the mouth for example... really captures him.

[libellum.livejournal.com]

Yeah. My mum is worse than I remembered her being. At least half of it was not having a good photo reference and making the mistake of trying to work from several different photos at once, which inevitably leads to some distortion. The rest of it was - I don't know - my mum being hard to paint and me being crap. Also, after repainting it for the second time still to my dissatisfaction, it reached that state of frustration and awfulness that sort of doomed it in a self-fulfilling manner. I did my dad's face drunk one night in a couple of hours; I worked too hard on my mum's, I think. On the other hand once it had gone wrong the first time it was already too late for it to work easily, so working less hard at that stage wouldn't have helped.

Ah well. It's all a learning curve, and given I spent about four times more days on it than I should have based on how much they paid me, I'm trying not to feel too guilty ;)

[sebastian1971.livejournal.com]

we seem to have fallen out of friendship with each other......i hope i have not caused offence.....shall we be friends again?

happy new year btw.