Warm greetings, dear friends who are art tasters, after more than five continuous days of work on the creative task of painting, I have completed my most recent artistic creation, an imaginary and genuine work, a despite having developed it based on a reference photograph. Personally and within the family, this plastic work contains a superlative degree of importance for me, given that it is a portrait dedicated to my paternal grandmother Rosa Margarita Marval, who went to eternal rest on 08/26 /2023, at 96 years of age. I have made the portrait in question with a photograph of my own that reveals a detail of the last stage of the life of my grandmother, who is remembered by everyone as a great woman with a great sense of love for life in general. This new painting is titled after the grandmother, that is why I have painted it between a rose and a daisy. I loved the result, it was a detailed, defined work with a range of harmonious nuances, fused in a somewhat geometric style. I will explain later step by step how I shaped this work of art. And I also share at the end of this review, a couple of previous posts that explain, in a divergent way, the way in which they could approach the making of a portrait. If you like what comes next, please buy it.

In the first instance, on a water green canvas I have drawn to scale the photograph under study, which will be shown soon... Here you can see part of the drawing.

Particularly, in this tilted photograph the drawing can be seen better. On this occasion I will not emphasize the design made to scale. However, I will explain the painting process. (Remember that at the end I will leave a couple of posts. Surely, if it is of your interest, you may find the issue of scale drawing more marked)... and if you are not yet as expert as a painter, I recommend painting on a canvas in white. Here, I have done it, I repeat, on a water green canvas, which was not so homogeneous, given that I have painted several works on it. Something that is also not recommended because colors and shapes have a tendency to bounce. On the other hand, the paint can crack due to the saturated thickness that the different layers of paint can reach on the canvas. Then you wouldn't be able to deal with it well.

In this section, I am already in the process of painting. The first thing to resolve was the background. My main idea was to make the portrait in an atmosphere dominated by red pigment. That's why I started staining gouache type, with fuschia. To later, orient the color to its highest intensity levels with other layers of paint.

In the best of cases, resolving the background helps highlight the drawing, which helps the artist have better visualization, projection and greater abstraction of the work to be done.

Ratifying what was said above, at this point in the creation, I had given greater consistency and color to the background, as desired. I must have repeated the process more than three times to reach that color intensity. It also had to completely cover the shapes and colors trapped in the background. Additionally, I had started the stains on part of the hair, to resume the drawing a little, because it had been lost, getting trapped under the background. And I especially started the staining process from the neck down. What was going to guarantee me in the future, being able to work more comfortably on the face. The torso would become, in turn, the background of the face, to conceive it in some way. Which would also help to highlight the drawing and the previously highlighted notions: projection, visualization and abstraction of the artist. This can be understood as a resource to increase concentration, and improve the quality and finish of the work of art.

Here, all I did was keep staining the hair. This time, using an intense blue as a base, since I knew that darker tones were coming for the hair, and that I could also take advantage and highlight some reflections, later, when it was my turn to lighten the predominant tone, in some key areas, which They would give the hair its original shape. I have also stained the face using a yellow tone, which helps accentuate the drawing and serves as a base for the coming layers. At this point I must emphasize that my intention was not to copy the reference photo, but rather the mission was to achieve the similarity in broad strokes, and achieve a more human, more artistic result, which would give a touch of originality to the work.

In this section, continue wet painting the background, that is, mixing the colors with the brush, directly on the support. It was the beginning of the rose. He understood that it had to complement the general composition of what the work of art was going to be as a whole... Background is understood here as everything that surrounds the central figure.

After advancing a little on the background, lightening the lower right side with fuchsia, according to the artist's hand, I placed another base on the face, looking for the most natural skin tones of the model . At this point I must emphasize that I also made use of memory to make sense of the skin tones in question. I didn't just base it on the reference photograph.

Returning to the background, I continued with the approach to the general composition of what would be the work of art as a whole. With a process similar to that of the rose, I created the approach of the daisy, which in this case, its predominant essence was going to be white.

Here, I intensified and detailed even more, all the shades of all the elements highlighted so far.

Here, I continued to intensify and detail more appropriately, all the tones of all the elements highlighted so far. I sought to emulate the most characteristic features of the face and hair according to the photograph, and according to the memories I have of my grandmother. In addition to also projecting what is not a memory or is on any paper, to say the least. He pursued the urinal and the non-existent. I merged much of what is in me. The experience achieved in other works, to create the new.

This is a more general photograph, it shows the disaster of the studio with the days of work, my cat Espiral also appears behind it taking a nap.

Here you can see the work, already quite mature, but I had to work on it by hand. I wear glasses because I must protect my eyes from almost all light.

This is the expected moment, where I show the reference photo so that it can be compared with the plastic work. There is the reference photograph stuck on the easel, on the plastic work. Additionally, it had detailed, already in its third layer, on the model's hand.

Finally, from this point on, the finished artistic work is shown and photographed from different angles.

El par de post prometidos. Puedes encontrar mayores referencias de como abordar un retrato para su realización:

Aquí , Y Aquí

Thank you for reading, see you soon, I wish you all the best.