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| Work In Progress: Sky, treeline, sand washes begun. |
Please excuse the whacky perspective appearance; I wasn't centered properly when I photographed it and having taken it with a flash tonight, pink hues are showing. They aren't in the original.This is a photo of the work in progress on the commissioned painting that has been filling my evenings and nights. The earth, sky and treeline are started and at the treeline, a small fence will be put there to define the perimeter of the arena. More work will be done to show depth in the trees.
I have been around, owned, raised and trained many horses in my lifetime, in fact we used to take groups of people into the mountains of Wyoming and Colorado to fish, hunt and camp. I feel pretty good about how the mare turned out in this; but I never met the rider, nor do I know exactly what she looks like at the facial angle I was to paint her.
The reference photo I have to use does not clearly show the rider's face; but the client told me "her face is in shadow anyhow, so it doesn't really matter". Little did he know how much it mattered to me.
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12 comments:
So spectacular!
Linda--My advice is to make sure it really "doesn't really matter." To avoid misunderstandings and disappointments, I emailed my last client images of stages of the portrait I was working on. Anyone who has accepted a commissioned work knows how important that the artist and client understand themselves completely. Without actually seeing the person,your perception or interpretation of the photo you are working from could be different from the client's, who knows the subject very well.
Thank you Cecelia. Point taken.
It looks really good so far. Perhaps you can obtain another reference photo, just of the rider's face ... it might be helpful, even though you will not require details.
I do have two other photos of her but the position of her head is very different. Maybe I'm getting too technical about the face; but there is a resemblance. I'll send him a jpeg of what I did so far and keep my fingers crossed it's okay. I'll be biting my nails until I hear from him.
Thank you Diane
This is coming along very nicely!I know working from photos to get fine detail especially a face at a distance.
You, too would know that particular difficulty. Thannks for commenting.
Just a note to those who posted, the client likes it which makes me very happy. No changes needed except put a dachshund by the fence in the background if I can.
Gasp.
I was on pins and needles till I heard from my client--congratulations--it is a wonderful piece.
Looking great Linda! And I don't think you need all the details of the rider's face - just as you have painted a suggestion of the trees, the shadow of the face will define it as human, but it is really the movement and gesture of the jump that are what this piece is about. The client should be very happy.
Thank you Julie, I appreciate that suggestion about the details. Sometimes I get a little too bogged down with them.
He wrote me an email and said "It looks great".
This is really amazing, Linda. I can not even begin to imagine the hours of work you must have put into this already. Your client is going to be ecstatic!
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