Russ
Russ
This is Russ. Russ is a massage therapist, and he is a magician. Russ works at the Space Time Tanks center with Eric, and I simply love him. One hour on his table can cause a person to have a different outlook – life is pretty good after all!
I am on the other side of the pond, visiting family in Israel. Everything is great here – sun and flowers and 70 degrees weather, but I haven’t mastered local hardware yet, and so my image is somewhat different from the real portrait. But I want to post it anyway, so you all know that I didn’t fall off the face of the Earth and am still painting and continuing with the Community Portrait series.
11″ x 8.5″ (28 x 22 cm) watercolor on paper
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Glad to have you back in blogland, Alex! Hope you are having a wonderful time with your family in Israel. This is another fantastic piece. I love how the background works so well with his top. I’m never sure how to do a background on portraits so usually leave them blank. This is wonderful.
It turns out that painted portraits take a while longer than graphite ones, and my posts became less frequent. But they come, slowly but surely. I am having similar hesitance about backgrounds, there is a strong tendency to leave them blank. I resist. I want to develop a more classical result in my portraits, and force myself to work the BG. Thank you for your comment, Nicola!
Wonderful portrait, again done with consummate skill. I admire your talent and careful, patient approach. Thank you for showing me the benefit of slowing down a bit!
Thank you, Linda! Slowing down has its benefits, as does a fast and free aproach. I am yet to try the second one. It is possible to be too slow and too careful loosing spontaneity with that. Don’t you think?
I agree and I struggle with this all the time.
Your portraits just get better and better, Alex. One thing I really am impressed with are the tones of blue grays you achieved throughout this painting. Drooling! 🙂
Leslie, I in fact thought of you when I was working my blues and grays, I know you like this combo and remember you discussing them in a couple of recent paintings. I am pleased with the BG, managed to get close to what I had in mind. The shirt is a different story, this is the best fabric drapping I have painted to date, and yet I see that more thought, skill and realism is needed to get to my idea of fabric. Thank you for your kind comment!
You have an amazing gift. I would hope to one day have half your talent. You should join our Paint Party Fridays and inspire us all!
Thank you, ileana! I am going to check the Paint Party Fridays, sounds interesting. Glad you stopped by and liked my work!
I hope you are having fun in Israel with the family. I remember when you were there last you did some sketches of people in coffee shops and such. Will you do some of those again? I hope so.
I really like your painting of Russ. Like Leslie, I LOVE your blues and greys. I find it interesting that with Russ you did a smiliar thing as with Eric, in that you used a monochromatic background. I like it very much. But what if you switched up your next one and did a background with a complementary color? Just wondering. I have no idea if that would work or not. And I think both Russ and Eric work quite well.
Hi Carol! Thank you for remembering my last year’s sketches! I am not doing sketches this year concentrating on painting instead. Sitting at home and painting alongside with my father, who is painting landscapes. Interesting experience – painting next to another artist, not in a class, but just … painting. As a way of life. I love it.
I love your idea of complementary BG. I am reading a book on painting classic portraiture – Portrait Painting Atelier: Old Master Techniques and Contemporary Applications by Suzanne Brooker. She has a large portion devoted to BG, a lot of great ideas. I have already started my next portrait and am thinking of complementary BG colors for it. I did Russ in the same manner as Eric to reinforce what I learned. But it is time to try something new. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, I really appreciate it.
Amazing! I just can’t get enough of your portraits. Absolutely amazing!
Great water color painting I like it a lot.
I keep popping by to see what you have been up to, Alex. I know you are working on something. Today I just scrolled through the last four portraits and what a beautiful line-up of paintings these are. Fit for display, me-thinks. Paint on! You are awesome.