One fine fellow I used to be in a band with several years ago is getting married this weekend, I decided I’d paint him as a nice surprise for the occasion:-
I had a few not brilliant quality old photos to choose from and after very little deliberation at all had to go with this bad boy here:-
I have got the likeness pretty well, even though that chick on the left is not impressed.
I knew I had limited time so was not going to over refine or get too photorealistic with it. My plan was not to adhere to any particular method or technique and just wing it, which seems to work for me generally. I’ve done the monochrome grisaille thing, and the raw umber underpainting, and the impressionistic Van Gogh thing, and they all have their merits so I thought I’d take a bit from them all and just have fun (after all I did not even have to give it to the guy if it went badly).
I started with a light drawing in red conte pencil, followed by what I would normally have done as an underpainting in raw umber - but full colour straight off the bat to save time. I also put down a heavy impasto on the beard area here (raw umber mixed with white alkyd paint so it dried quick) which I would paint over when dry:-
Those high flecks of paint catch light and do a decent bristle impression, it even feels moderately like beard.
Oil on board 24x30cm in black frame all ready for the big day. Hope the happy couple like it!
