Exercise 4: Converying character

Exercise: Conveying character

I chose to portray boldness as a character in a friend of mine. I had a photo of Gary pulling a silly face but Gary to me is a confident and ‘large as life’ character always ready with a smile and joke, always ready to step forward and not backward and its this particular characteristic I wanted to show.

He’d already been a suffering model for a previous project and as a result I’d already begun to learn his face in terms of canvas and paint. Using a photo for reference I initially began to sketch on to some A3 black card I’d used previously to protect my work surface when priming a canvas and some yellow ochre primer had seeped through onto the card. I liked the texture of the scrappy primer and worked on to that with a white Chinagraph pencil mapping out the initial outline. This was initially going to be some prelim sketches but progressed with a mind of its own into a finished painting.

Once the outline was down, I used diluted mixes of acrylic paint, putting down base layers of skin tones and darker mixes for the clothing. Ghostly like at this stage because the diluted paint was being socked up somewhat by the paper and his face is starting to look scary rather than bold.

Continued to layer on diluted mixes, pulling his face vertically and emphasising his open mouth and lines around his mouth and through his cheeks.

Finally managed to move away from ‘scary’ by reducing the amount of white above & around the pupil. I realised there are only very subtle differences between the emotions showing on a persons face at any one time and I tend toward bold changes. My changes can sometimes be far too big and totally alter the painting. This became really apparent as I carried on painting and I had to consciously keep myself in check. I was also finding that the unprimed card was socking up the paint at a surprisingly speed and efficiency and that the paint was loosing its glossy thick finish which I’m more used to.

But finally the painting felt finished.

I can see caricature in this painting and at times I consciously felt tempted toward that genre in some paintings but did try not to. Of course his face is too long and therefore doesn’t truly reflect accurate proportions but it does speak to me of his ‘larger than life’, his boldness of character and I’m very pleased with this.

I also found using a photograph made the translation onto paper easier. I still struggle at times to move an image from 3d to 2d and a photograph has already done that.

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My tutor report for this exercise goes as follows:

“This piece carries the sense of the person’s character well. It is a striking and bold pose and it is appealing to the viewer. The dashes of paint and the aggressive marks marry up with the concept of the expression. The glasses are a little too distracting as they are very black and the lips seem a little too red.”

I’m pleased that my tutor agrees the scrappy style of painting matches the boldness of the subject and that to someone else its a pleasing pose. However I agree with her comments about the lips and taking that a step forward I was less pleased with the tongue now its some time since I last saw the painting. I was unsure about the comments about the glasses as the frames are very bold in reality. Dark coloured frames are very much the fashion at the moment but nevertheless in light of my tutors comment I’ve taken it back to the easel and worked a little more on those two points until the painting now looks like this.

They are small changes and I think it has started to detract from that shock, fun, strikingly bold pose but overall I think the figure looks more polished.

To compare the changes below (original painting on the right, updated version on the left)

I’ve narrowed the glasses further, added some hints of white reflection on the frames and underneath them on the top of the cheeks, then lightened and thinned the lips slightly whilst also working to define the tongue further. I like the changes but to be honest I’m glad the glasses are still bold, clearly defined and even slightly detracting. I’ve also added some additional highlights on the cheeks, forehead and other areas to emphasise where the light was catching the features on his face.