Painting #5 Portrait of David - WIP

dlail

Trying to keep the momentum going by staying a few steps ahead. Been culling through my photos and it looks like I've several good candidates. This is a shot from a shoot about 3 years ago and thought it was very dramatic and would make a cool "Game of Thrones" piece. Sorry for the extreme angle but the new lamination sheets I'm using are super reflective. 

Forgiveness

Looks like a nice photo to work from. Nice subtleties in the dark areas and the highlights are good, not too bright. 

dlail

Hi @Forgiveness ~ Thanks

dlail

The last couple of weeks have been very busy. Glad to be back at it. This high contrast with lots of low values is very tricky. I thought it would be much easier.

Bobitaly

This is coming out great! 

Forgiveness

Looking great so far! Those subtle values are a real challenge to capture, but I found that repeated pushing and pulling of paint around and having a feeling for it gets me there.

PaulB

Good work. Keep going, and don't be discouraged that it looks like Bigfoot. All that will resolve itself as the rest of the values come in.

dlail

@PaulB Exactly - lol

dlail

Thanks @Bobitaly & @Forgiveness

tassieguy

It's shaping up great @dlail.

MikeDerby

Yeah,  i agree with the others.  looks good.  keep going

dlail

Thanks @MikeDerby and @tassieguy.

dlail

Well here is this week's progress. Face starting to have some structure. Hate the images is banding - in life tonal values are smoother. This has been quite the challenge for some reason. It is 8x10 half the size as Gabe's portrait. I thought this size would go faster and be easier to manager. 

peterhill

Looking good, to me it see like you've made the nose a bit too pointy at the end though? 

MikeDerby

See Marks video regarding subtlety.  It will help you with some of the transitions.  Looks good so far.

Candora

The nose must be adjusted and the smaller brown color. Enhance the darkness of the eyes. I think the result will be very good. 

dlail

@MikeDerby and @Candora Thank you for your recommendations, they have been very help.

Went ahead and got the canvas covered and started making adjustments. Darkened his eyes and made adjustments to his nose - not totally happy with it yet but it is the best I can do at the moment. Chalking this one up as a learning experience and trying not to be so critical about it.

Candora

@dlail I am also that painter when you are. Try, try the colors. So many times to study the values under my paintings. (I hope you understand my bad English, will write without Google translate), I really love this paintings. 

GTO

I don’t know if it’s the picture you took of your painting (the camera makes the highlights so bright) but I think the highlights in the eyes may be too white.   I am finding that I have that problem on my first painting as well.  

Forgiveness

It's good to get the canvas completely covered initially and come back to readjust whatever seems off.

dlail

Thanks @Candora, @GTO and @Forgiveness for your recommendations. I had to take a break from looking at it, but with fresh eyes was able to see the issues. Hope to post the final this weekend. 

dlail

Starting to feel like David is getting some life to him. He's a bit blotchy now that he is staring to dry again.