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Painting ... “ Joe”!

This is my long over-due, and very first blog!!!

Much of my work has been in Plein-Air, but my first love is painting People ...

so I was thrilled when my neighbor and his wife asked me to paint a portrait of Joe.

They had both seen my show at the Jessel Gallery in Napa, and said they were very impressed, especially with my portraits of people...

They recently had bought two of my paintings of chefs in the kitchen...  I must say the painting of  “Ciccios” was one of my favorites...

and now I had the opportunity to paint Joe ...

Joe is a wonderful, endearing human being.  He has a sharp quippy sort of humor, and very knowledgable about so many things..  These days he is obsessed with photography and belongs to a very active/serious club in the Napa Valley.

In his working days he was an engineer... living in the Berkeley area...

 Very interesting guy!

Ok... so Joe..”what would you like to be doing in your portrait?”  I knew he didn’t want the stiff staunch -like-I’m soooo important type pose ...

So we got back to the basics ..  food ...  What kind...?

Spaghetti & Meatballs and a nice glass of merlot.. (pronounced Mayer-LOT)  according to Joe

Ok ... taking into consideration that Joe is in his 80’s..  I figured he was not interested in sitting for numerous 3-4 hour sittings, so instead, Joe came over to my house, sat at my dining room table, with an empty bowl filled with apples  (for color), a glass of Mer-LOT,  salt & pepper shakers, and a plaid table cloth..  actually checkered blue & white... which      I took the liberty of changing.. 

     I tried a lot of different light sources.  I had a cool light from the outside coming through the French Doors, a warm light mounted on a tripod. I tried a variety of different angles with the lights and different warms..  a yellow light versus a pinkish light.

Although the yellow seemed harsh at first.  it ultimately gave the most contrast and the most vibrancy to his skin color.

After 87 photos later and a diminishing bottle of Mer-LOT..  I felt I got all I needed.

1. Using the grid on the Ipad, I was able to move the photo around...  Awesome device...  I finally settled on the idea of a wider than higher format (20x24”) and that it would ultimately be a center-point perspective composition
2. I had the center point idea from the beginning, setting the lines of he table cloth leading the viewers eye directly to Joe’s face. There is a little wiggle of the placement of the bowl and the front right and left objects.  I didn’t wan to be too obvious, plus I needed a little disparity for tension
3. Noting the horizon line and the break down of thirds.  I actually painted a grid on the canvas so as to stay true to the idea of keeping in thirds  THE GOLDEN RATIO ... The grid really did help me in the proportions of Joe’s shoulders, which created the triangle, his arms which extended the triangle and the bowl plus shadow that completed the horizontal line at the bottom
4. Focal points:  in order of importance:

Joe’s face, his nose in particular

his glass of wine

  bowl of spaghetti

  his hand with ring

5. Composition:  I wanted a center-point, pyramid composition, but I also wanted the viewer’s eye

to roam around the canvas...  The background had to have some movement to it and a break-up of space. I was hoping to have the viewer pulled in with the perspective lines of the tablecloth.. directly to his  face, but then I wanted the viewer to move around counter-clockwise, noting his wine-glass, bowl, hand, shoulder ...  napkin ... etc.

1. Details:  I spent a lot of time on Joe’s hands....  they were exciting, because they were challenging.  I wanted to show their age, yet their softness and fullness.
2. His glasses were also challenging...  less is best when it comes to glasses or jewelry
3. His hair picked up the light on the left and dropped off to the right side of his head...  again less...  
4. Trying to keep in mind my focal point even within his face, I decided to not put too much detail in his hair or ears or glasses...  I also left the salt & pepper shaker soft as well as the wine bottle, thereby keeping the focus on Joe, his hands and his bowl of spaghetti   BTW, we never did have a bowl of Spaghetti, so I just kinda made up the spaghetti, meatballs and sauce.  I also just suggested the utensils with a few simple brush-strokes
5. Conclusion:  I feel I did a good job on painting “Joe”

I feel like I captured his essence, his mischievous smile, a bit of the twinkle in his eye and hopefully some of the joy he shows, enjoying the finer, yet simpler things in life!!!!