I finished a small (14"x 11") oil portrait commission today. It was a posthumous painting of a young man his sister commissioned for her mother for Mother's Day. He and I have been eye to eye for two days. The reference photo was tiny and bad. His face is less than a half inch tall. I scanned it into a file at a high resolution and brought it up lifesize on my monitor, which helped, but it was still grainy and poor. But I could tell it would mean a lot to the family to give it my best.
Anticlimactically, neither of my paintings were accepted into the Salon International. I'm a little disappointed. But not too surprised. I will keep working to improve my oil painting skills and plan to try again next year. Thank you, my sweet friends, for sending words of encouragement these last couple of weeks while I pushed to meet the deadline.
My jaw is starting to feel human this evening. Of course, it could be the 800 mg of Ibuprofen I have swimming in my system. Thank you Jo and Sharon for your sympathy. I needed every bit of it!
Anticlimactically, neither of my paintings were accepted into the Salon International. I'm a little disappointed. But not too surprised. I will keep working to improve my oil painting skills and plan to try again next year. Thank you, my sweet friends, for sending words of encouragement these last couple of weeks while I pushed to meet the deadline.
My jaw is starting to feel human this evening. Of course, it could be the 800 mg of Ibuprofen I have swimming in my system. Thank you Jo and Sharon for your sympathy. I needed every bit of it!
2 comments:
Wow! I can't believe you were able to create that beautiful painting from a tiny little postage stamp sized picture!
Susan,
I think that this portrait shows compassion and tenderness...it must be the way you were feeeling towards the family to try to give it your best while painting it for them...it is amazing to me that you could get it so well from such a small picture. Well done.
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