Practice portrait
Tuesday, May 9th, 2006
This project wasn’t on my “to do” list, but I was scrolling through the pictures on my computer and thought that Lisa’s senior pic would make a nice practice portrait, especially since I wanted to experiment with the style for “headshot” type compositions. Then I saw a tube of the background color (Liquitex turquoise green) on clearance at an art supply store and it all came together last night and this afternoon, in an unexpected tribute to Andy Warhol (at least where color scheme is concerned). I’m happy with both the likeness I achieved and with the style, although it feels a bit weird to do a portrait of someone without them knowing and then posting it on the Internet. (Lisa, if you’re reading this: Hi, I’m not a stalker, and would you like the painting?) It was, as I said, strictly for practice. I like doing portraits and this is a nice size to work in. (9×12″ acrylic on canvas board)
Technical notes: I scanned it, so it’s slightly cropped (although nothing important is missing) and the colors are a little duller and lighter than they are in real life. I played with the brightness, saturation, etc a little bit but didn’t think it was worth too much stressing. Just know that the background color is much prettier in person.
