Portraits

When I was a student I found depicting a face to be beyond my abilities.

The idea of trying to capture someone's likeness was frightening in a way. The slightest mistake in the likeness would lead to a distortion of the person which was immediately visible, especially to those who knew the subject.

Many years ago I decided to confront my fear and paint a portrait of my friend Rob. I documented this with a series of photographs so that I could see my technique and hopefully discover where I was going wrong, with a view to improving my work.

I turned it into a video so I could get a feeling for the progression.

This is what came of it:

 

After this I did a painting of my mother, this was much bigger, about three feet by four, still oil on canvas: