I went to live painting in South Austin last night. This is what I did. We had a superb model. I really enjoyed the cool reflections in the shadow. Figure and portrait painting are my true love, but I have been shying away from them because it is a relatively longer way to be successful. I detoured into still life painting because I could put aside anatomy and all subtlety of dealing with human subjects, so I can be quickly pass the basics and come to the artistic concepts like composition, colors, edges, and paint textures. Now I have achieved what I wanted in still life. and now I will try my best to paint humans more.
It is more fun to paint portraits, but marketing them could be an issue. Nobody wants to put a stranger's portrait on the wall, and I don't quite enjoy doing portrait commissions from photos. So I don't know the solution. I am going to put this study on auction with a relatively low starting price. I am going to experiment placing more artistic designs on my human paintings and make them more universal, more story telling. If you have good suggestions, please let me know. Thanks.
10 comments:
Absolutely beautiful, expressive...interesting! I know what you're saying but as someone once told me, people put landscapes up in their house that they don't know too! ; ) I just see it as art I fall in love with - whatever the subject. Great job.
Beautiful! I have the same thoughts and experiences you have expressed in this post. I, too started out painting portraits and scenes with figures. It was basically my passion to paint a face or a figure in a scene. There is a very special chemistry that goes on between the painter and the model. I have been having a great desire to paint portraits again! Your post is a great encouragement to me.
Brilliant Qiang! This is such a vibrant painting.
I love doing portraits too and your portraits always inspire me to do more. Thanks!
That's a gorgeous painting! Very expressive and inspiring. It's got everything--colors, strokes. Bravo!
Re. your question: my "human" paintings are what I sell best, but then I always put mine into context. It does help to make it more universal.
Also, I figure if an artist gets really good they'll sell everything they paint, and you're well on your way. So it might not be an issue. I'd rather not make it an issue in any case, as the "magic" seems to happen best when we do what we love.
You nailed it! And I love the purple!
You do appear to have a feel for this. My teacher says you must go for the expression foremost in portraiture. To make it a more universal thing you need to go a step beyond that, Bayer's suggestion of putting it in context offers a hint. Dig deeper. May a muse be with you.
Gorgeous! Everything you do, you do well!
An excellent painting.
May I suggest you have a look at the work of Harley Brown. His figures would look well on anybody's wall, not just the family of the sitter. He has gone a few steps beyond creating a likeness and created works of art in their own right. Having said that I think you are very close to making an image where it doesn't matter who the sitter is.
Harley Brown was going to be my suggestion too.
SKin tones are wonderful in this piece. Love how loose you kept the background. A spectacular painting!
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