A night of nightmares about my future and anxious insomnia.
A day of painting; the second Claire Luce portrait, underpainted last year more successfully than the other version, yet still today was a struggle and I remain dissatisfied with the results. These paintings are tests, training, for good reason.
The finish is smooth, the colours adequate, although the hair stands out, not natural, this is partly due to the black and white source image where the hair can be hard to locate - a monochrome copy would solve this. The result perhaps looks like a colourised photograph for this reason. The likeness is not good, though on par with, perhaps a little better than, the accuracy of several other similar portraits of the past; annoying, but not a certain step backwards. The colouration is on par with previous works too, perhaps better than average. These works are always difficult, and are thus rewarding as training. The poor quality of the blurry and black and white source image is a key problem, I have less trouble with good source images, several are better and it's best to know the sitter - one can't determine a likeness from one photograph. I strive to add detail and crisp outlines where there are none, so perhaps an exact likeness is impossible in such circumstances. I could easily copy the blur, though this may defeat the object of the exercise.
There are some steps I can take to improve the accuracy. The face shape itself must be the first consideration; the face here is slightly long. The eyes are slightly out of place, but all is relatively close. Contrast could be improved perhaps. The hair is lacking in many details, I don't care so much, this today was a secondary concern.
I will work on it more perhaps.
