The Portrait Process, Stage 4: Assembling the Jigsaw Puzzle

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The next (huge) task in painting my Dad’s portrait was to meld the many photographic references into a single coherent whole.   I needed to get the head, arms, torso orientation all into similar sizes and then try to get them to connect to each other in a reasonable way. If I were a better Photoshop practitioner, this might have been a snap.  But my attempts were so lame that I seriously considered resorting to cut and paste.

Here are a few of my horrible Photoshop mashups, along with my much more useful iPad sketches.

stacking the pieces into a rough order
stripping out the extraneous stuff
stacking the consolidated torso over the table pose
first try at iPad version
the final one of several efforts to unify the elements into a composition

The Portrait Process, Stage 3: Sketching the Pose within its Rectangle (Time is Passing)

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I’m still a long way from putting brush to canvas.  In fact, the canvas may not even be up on the easel yet.  I’m finding it useful to ‘spend’ more time working up an iPad sketch of the overall pose.  Here are a few glimpses of that sequence.

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The Portrait Process, Stage 1: Assembling Raw Material.

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Living too far from Biloxi for regular painting from life and lacking a good photo for a portrait, I had to develop a suitable composition from bits and pieces.

As a starting point, I selected this photo of Dad in a characteristic setting — at the kitchen table, managing his projects via telephone.  He’s a master at persuasive phone calls – and is even better at advocating in person.

photo of Jerry J. O'Keefe at kitchen table

A Favorite Photo of Dad. Basis of Portrait Composition. 2011.

Problem:  while this made for a strong, natural-looking composition, we needed to nix the green shirt & broad smile for a bit more formality — and adjust the foreshortened hand and table, caused by being too close when taking the photo.  After sifting through piles of images, I selected these as as further inspiration:

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I liked the idea of a navy or black suit, combined with the classy informality of an open collared white shirt.  (One of Dad’s favorite looks.)  These photos also include serious, yet pleasant, facial expressions, as well as body positions similar to the St. Patrick’s Day image.

Portrait of My Dad — On the Occasion of His 90th Birthday!

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I’m sure you’ve been too busy to notice, but I haven’t been writing here for the last few months.  I was fully occupied, painting a portrait of my dad, Jeremiah J. O’Keefe III (‘Jerry’).

Here it is, with a few words about my dad.  I’ll say more about him later, as well as about the painting process that greatly resembled the ‘perils of Pauline’.

portrait of Maureen's Dad on the occasion of his 90th birthday

Dad at 90 in Command Central. Oil.

Dad is a decorated WWII Marine ace pilot; successful businessman; member of the MS State Legislature; two term Mayor of Biloxi, MS; lifelong Democrat with a passionate belief in the equality of all people; philanthropist, having served as a substantial donor to, and principal fundraiser for, the Walter Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs, MS and the Frank Gehry-designed Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi, MS.  Last but not least, he is the father of 13 children and a multitude of grand & great-grandchildren.  Congrats on 90 great years, Dad!

Calling Those Interested in iPad Art! Local Demos and Workshops!

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Those of you in the Washington, DC area will have several opportunities to check out the iPad as a tool for making art during the next few months.

There will be manageable 2 1/2 hour workshops during which you can get a good feel for ‘what’s the big deal about iPad art’; ‘what if I don’t know anything about iPads’; or ‘what if I don’t know how to draw a straight line!’

And then, if you want to learn more, we offer a couple of day-long workshops during which you can explore some of the details of the intuitive ArtRage app for the iPad.

Here are some of the many uses you can make of ArtRage on the iPad (click image to enlarge):

Illustrated-eg-of-iPad-use

My Local iPad Art Classes Reviewed in ArtRageUS Magazine!

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Stepping back a bit more in time, I am happy to report that I’m now published (digitally, at least) in connection with my iPad art teaching activities. ArtRageUS, the online magazine for users of the ArtRage app, published an article about my efforts to bring iPad art to the Washington DC area in its Third Anniversary issue, March 2013.

Here’s the article, as well as a link to ArtRageUS, in case you’d like to peruse or subscribe.

Teaching and Being Taught in Lafayette

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Last week I taught a one day iPad art workshop to a number of local artists in Lafayette LA and then attended a three-day workshop in watercolor journaling held by Don Getz and organized by my sister Ceci. Another sister, Mercedes, participated in much of the fun, including the iPad session. Since I was so close to home, Ceci and I swung over to Biloxi afterward to visit our dad and his wife and more brothers and sisters.

As for making art while out-of-town, I didn’t paint while teaching. And it was so cold and windy during the plein air workshop that I didn’t do anything of note then either. In fact, after a couple of watercolor/ink drawings, I resorted to my iPad to get something — anything — down before my hands went numb. Though everything is unfinished, I’ll show you the state of play (along with a few photos of what we were memorializing) so you can get a flavor for the beauty of Cajun country. Teaser: we painted the St. John Cathedral Oak, the third largest live oak in the country.

I’ve been busy!

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I don’t know whether to start where I left off and come forward or where I am now and go backward. Guess the latter.

Last evening I delivered a painting to the new Bethesda office of Evers & Co., a regional real estate firm. We instructors at the Yellow Barn were invited to submit one of our paintings for display during this evening’s ribbon cutting and reception and thereafter. Here’s what I submitted from my private collection. I’ve loved this ‘baby’ too much to offer it for sale — til now.

Oranges on Copper

Oranges on Copper

Newish iPad Fun

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I’ve been distracted lately by a major house re-org, urged on by my selected ‘completion reward’: revamping my office area to include a nice, sunny area for painting. Yum. In the meantime, I’ve been teaching an iPad class and preparing for a trip to Lafayette, LA to teach a one-day iPad workshop and attend a four-day watercolor journaling workshop. More on that later.

I’ve done a few new iPad pieces over the last couple of months. Here they are:

Admiring Make Piece Pretties

Admiring Make Piece Pretties

Trainspotting

Trainspotting

 

Nudes in Charcoal

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A couple of weekends ago, I spent a pleasant two days in lovely Tilghman Island, MD, at a figure drawing workshop offered by Walt Bartman, of the Yellow Barn Studio and Griffin Art Center. Walt’s wife Robin provided superb hospitality, while Walt kept the seven of us busy with charcoal, graphite and conte. Maria, a professional model par excellence, served as our muse. Here are a few of my sketches from the weekend.

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