Portrait of an Artist

Portrait of an Artist • 12" x 12" • oil on canvas

It was an amazing and fun challenge to receive a photo of an artist without being told his name or anything about him except that he looked content. He would be facing the same challenge with my photo.

Excited to get to work, I started with a pencil sketch in my sketchbook the night the photo was emailed to me. I layered on paint for two weeks, painting shadows and light with great texture, than blending it and layering it again. It was tough for me to blend all of the brushstrokes which I loved but felt it would read more as a portrait if I smoothed it. I do believe I found the happy medium. Because I don't know anything about the subject I used the cool green on the left against the warm red on the right. I also used this color concept in the colors of his skin and I used quite a bit of orange in the flesh tone to pop out his blue eyes.

I love the way this oil portrait turned out and I hope this gentleman does too!