Downpours and tornadoes couldn’t wash out our opening reception for ‘Brushes with Nature’, the summer-long exhibit by the Seven Palettes at the lovely Kentlands Mansion in Gaithersburg, MD. Our 50 pieces of art were beautifully hung by the staff of the Gaithersburg Cultural Arts Advisory Committee and at least 50 people braved the storms to attend the reception. Here are a few scenes from the festivities.
I had made good progress during my work based on the reference photograph, but I decided it wasn’t good enough. As a way to visualize changes that might improve the painting, I decided to do a mark-up on the iPad, using a side-by-side comparison with the reference photo.
markup of painted portrait, as a result of side-by-side comparison with photo. iPad screenshot.
I cropped the photo included in my September 8th post and imported it digitally into the ArtRage app on my iPad. I then ‘painted’ over the portrait area, trying to remedy the problems I identified in the painting. This was a freehand process, done by ‘eyeballing’ the photo reference. ArtRage is not able to make measurements for a closer comparison of the two images.
I like this markup as well as the final painting — if not more! The ability to easily edit iPad marks liberates me from feeling that each (potentially incorrect) modification is ‘permanent’. Playing around with the marks often yields spontaneous and interesting ideas that I would never have attempted initially in oils.
Even though I liked the resulting mark-up, I knew it would still be a challenge to implement these ideas in oil paint on the actual painting.
A few days after my third meeting with Rita, I decided to spend some time at home, making corrections based on the photo I’d taken at the prior session. Then I blew up a print of the photo, marked up the dimensions of key facial features and then taped it beside my updated portrait for a closer comparison.
A quick look confirms that the portrait is better than it had been, but . . . the chin is too long. The lower cheeks and forehead are too narrow. The nose isn’t quite right and the eye on our left droops too much. The hair is too high (but I love it so! Will I bite the bullet and whittle it down?)
session five, after implementing changes identified via my iPad analysis
I show it to Rita who likes it ‘as is’ and doesn’t want me to make more changes. Hmmmm. What to do?
Take It From the Top, one of our beautiful barriers. original iPad painting.
This iPad sketch is based on a satellite image of one of the islands offshore of the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I think it’s Deer Island, but don’t remember for sure. Can anyone identify this for me?
The next time Rita and I got together, I focused primarily on developing her eyes and trying to capture the slight grin we’d arrived at for the facial expression. Didn’t want to touch the hair or general coloration, which I liked.
Rita at session 3.
At the end of the session, I made a photo or two of Rita in this position and with ‘the grin’. You can see immediately that I’ve got a ways to go!
Rita, in the selected pose.
Jackson Avenue cedar. original iPad painting.
Of course we have to include Ocean Springs, when we’re talking Biloxi. And here’s a beauty right near the beach on Jackson Avenue. Thanks to my sister Susan for encouraging me to capture it in my iPad series.
Nesting on Horn Island. original iPad painting.
This iPad sketch is also based on one of the lovely Horn Island photos my niece Ceci made. She’s got a real eye, doesn’t she.
At our next session, I posed Rita looking straight ahead. I thought that would be contemporary, as well as more fun for both of us. We could see each other, converse more easily, and I could watch her sparkling eyes as I painted. I thought it also might help her hold a little grin ~~ I knew I’d be grinning at her the whole time and grins are infectious.
Rita, first session in oils on linen.
Here’s how the painting looked at the end of the first session with oils. My main goals were to situate her on the canvas, get an approximation of her bright shirt, rough out the face contours, and depict her silver hair in luscious pale colors.
At a Biloxi Waffle House. original iPad painting.
On our last visit to Biloxi, we grabbed a bit of breakfast goodies at one of the many local Waffle House restaurants. We didn’t really believe they’d have us seated within five minutes — given the long lines of seated and standing wanna eat patrons. But the efficient staff delivered in fine style. Here’s my iPad take on the scene.