All tagged Commission
Luckily, I managed to garner great inspiration from this piece. Nawal has an inherent glamour to her, and the specific pose in this image reinforces and bolsters her appeal in this regard. It's rather moody, but also natural - a hard mix to capture. But it's uniqueness meant that I found it easy to shape and build - it has a stark and definitive motif around which the features can be placed.
Representation in terms of angle, proportion, size and colour is. of course, the primary importance - but feeling and atmosphere, the ghostly, not-quite-definable qualities of a portrait, are what truly capture the subject and give the initial impact.
The grossly unfair "spec" of time that we have with our beloved pets is made that much more poignantly painful when they were the recipients of our parental pinning too. It's heart-wrenching! I can tell that even without being a parent yet myself.
A commission of John completed as a surprise gift for his 70th birthday. His partner, Anne, said it was a "great success".
"In her elegant and statuesque pose, Darcy gives of an aura of strength and grace"
"I didn't want to relinquish the crudeness that was bestowed upon the painting with the thumb and finger painting. I think it adds a charm"
