The Letter: Step 5
The real fun of working on a figurative painting is, not surprisingly, painting the figure. I like to start with the face and hair. Somehow the disembodied head effect is less awkward than the alternative of a headless body. This is a new model, really great to work with and with a very interesting face. The scrap shoot for this painting went so well, in fact, that I also ended up with figure scrap for a good half-dozen additional paintings. Since the scene is set in the brightest of sunlight with the figure resting on a very light, reflective surface and surrounded by white clouds (a somewhat difficult location replicate in late winter in Salt Lake), I opted to shoot the reference photos indoors. I was able to borrow a battery of very powerful lights from an aforementioned cinematographer friend, and a stone fireplace hearth stood in for the concrete ledge. What proved to be a challenge in painting the face was the lack of any really distinct, dark shadow areas. This meant the flesh tones were all well on the light side, and small subtleties in color made huge differences in the modeling of the forms. In the end I was able to mess with it until I was really quite happy with the result, especially once the hair was in place to add some much needed contrast between the light skin and the sky.
This image shows the face and hair as they appeared just after they were first painted. Before the entire painting was finished I reworked some parts of the face, particularly on the right side (the viewer’s right). The changes were subtle, but should be discernible in a careful comparison with images of the finished piece.
