2c. Finishing Michael Pellecchia

Well, I'm back painting my old friend, Michael Pellecchia.

 I've let a couple of days go by while the paint from the last session dried. You get a sense of timing after doing this for awhile. There are times when it is better to keep going while your paint is wet. Then, there are times when it is best to let it dry and come back later to add a layer of new paint over the dry paint. This allows you to make a brush stroke without picking up any paint from below.

Here's where I am starting today. Hopefully I will finish it in this session. 

Michael sits on my easel, while my laptop is close by. I'm starting my final work on Michael's face. I have roughed it in enough to place all the parts and get some paint on it. The paint flows better over paint than raw canvas and I need all the help I can get on this face, since I'm not exactly a portrait artist. Right now Michael has a strange look with the way his right eye shows through his glasses. I saw that when I put the first coat of paint on, but decided to tackle it later. 

Here's what my palette looks like as I begin on his face. I will move paint from place to place, with a little of this and a little of that, getting the variety of skin tones I need.

I didn't let Michael know I was working on his piece. He knew that I liked the old floor and might paint it some day, but that's all. I think it might have been about a year ago when I asked him for it. He discovered it the other day from my FB page and made some nice comments. So did a few of his FB friends, who are mostly musicians. Michael is very well connected in the Jazz scene and an excellent musician I might add. 

Here is the link to his self-made video he recorded recently.

MikeMoneyblows1.avi

www.youtube.com

While watching his video I notice that he was sporting a mustache and goatee that I had not seen before. So, I decide

seen before. So, I decided that I would update my painting with his new face. 

Here is a closeup in the rough stage without the facial hair:

And now, here it is with hair and more work:

I like the look!

I pretty much went over his whole face with small correcting brushstrokes while adding in his new hair. I also shaved off some of his skin on the right. I had him a bit too chubby in the face. 

I went over the whites with another coat to intensify the light. I also defined his hand more and added in more details on his glasses. Now, I think I have the face working better. 

I have to keep in mind that my closeup photos of his face are not what the viewer really sees when looking at the original. This 16 x 20 painting is not meant to be looked at super close. The best viewing distance would be about three feet away.

Next I want to work more on the floor reflections and add more light to his shoes.

I dry brushed in some white on the part of the flooring that reflected the light from the dominant window on the left, and added just a few touches of white to his shoes. I used my fingers to blend the whites into the floor. Then, I went in with black and roughed up the floor like the original.

I know I am almost done, so I went ahead and added my signature at the bottom right. Most of my pieces have the signature in this location. Some have details on the bottom right that I don't want to interfere with so I put them on the left.

I didn't want this signature to stand out too much, so I used a red color. I had to leave about a quarter of an inch on the sides from framing space and moved my signature in a little. 

Now, it was time to sit back and see what else needed to be done. There is always something, but you have to stop at some point too. I found several things that bothered me and fixed them. I darkened the heater across the right side, as I think I had that too bright (the photo was brighter on that side). I also made the instrument case look more normal. It had a funny detail in the photo that I didn't understand. I wanted it to be a secondary item and didn't want to draw attention to it.

I added some lighter reddish color to the bricks and roughed up the wall above the bricks. The bricks actually went all the way up in the original photo, but I thought that took the viewer's attention up and out of the main subject area (Michael) so I stopped the bricks above his head and made the rest a non-descript, plaster like wall. But, it needed some "oldness" and I went over it with some dry brush.

I also added some lighter blues on the highlighted areas of his blue jeans. I then painted  some maroon color along the right edges of his sweater. This is the less dominate side than the left side that is catching the main light, but it still needs some soft lighting coming from the other widow. Then, I painted a thin line of light grey along the edges of his music stand. It helped define this black object and set off his image behind it.

A little more black shadow under his feet and a little more wooden color on his chair pretty much finished off this part of the painting. This is where I will stop and leave well enough alone. I like the look and if I keep working on him, things could go bad.

The last to get a touch up is the windows. In taking one more look at the piece I decided that I wanted to make the windows work better.

I notice a few things I can do. They won't take that long and then I will be done.

Yes, this is upside down.

When working on a small canvas like this, it is sometimes beneficial to turn the canvas so you can better use your brush to do something difficult. In this case, I want to work on the upper portion of the piece and it is all dry. I turn the canvas and work from the upper left window area down toward the bottom right. I can rest my hand on the canvas while I paint without a problem.

Now, what needs fixing? Well, in the original photo there are these wonderful blue reflections from the window parts appearing on the glass. I'm pretty good at understanding reflections, but to tell you the truth, I'm not really sure why they are there. But, I love how they interact. Let me explain.

First, they interact in color with the windows. The entire window area is warm colors in tones of light and dark browns, Van Dyke Brown to be exact. Adding in these cool blue tones balances out this area and give it life!

Second, they interact in color with the cool blue reflections that the windows make on the floor.

And third, they duplicate the shapes in the windows, almost like a drop shadow, giving the window more dimension.

The original photo had this blue reflection, but some of it was lost because of the amount of the light coming through the windows. I decided to make the blue universal across all the windows. To do this, I went back in with a small brush and either increased the blue that was there, or added blue that never was.

You can see in the above photo how I am painting the blue down the left side of the thick window trim. The right side has yet to get its blue. I have to go in-between all the little brown cross hatches, but it doesn't have to be so perfect. This area is fairly loose in this painting on purpose. I want the attention to fall in Michael, and this looseness (almost out of focus) of the upper portion of the painting keeps the eye from wanting to go there.

Well, the windows are done and I once again sit back and stare at this painting.

I see nothing that I want to change, so I'm calling it a day on this one. I hope Michael likes it. 

Below are two small photos to show the difference between the original photo and my painting:

  

Remember that I used a different photo for the background. I added light where there wasn't any as you can see on his clothes; and added details to the floor reflections to emphasize that. His music case shows up, along with his music and instrument stands. The heater is more uniform and goes all the way across instead of the broken light of the original. The wall bricks also show more. The painting looks like a painting –– as it should.

Now, I have to decide what to paint next. I have a lot of choices. One is a painting that I brought down with me unfinished. I'm leaning towards that one. I'll let you know what I decide on my next post.