John Oil Portrait #2

Here is the second of the oil portraits of John, this one is an environmental portrait (i.e. in the flat, not some screed against BP, although I support the campaign to drop their art sponsorship – btw oil paint is made from linseed, safflower, poppy or walnut oil, not some petrochem effluent). Anyway I digress – with the the first portrait, I started with verdaccio underpainting in Griffin oils because they are fast to dry and the lowest layers must be totally dry before adding any more layers.

John #2 (Verdaccio underpainting), Griffin Oil Paint, 16×20″ canvas board.
John #2 (Second version), Winton Oil Paint, 16×20″ canvas board.
John #2 (Final verson – top view), Winton Oil Paint, 16×20″ canvas board.

Then we have the second version, and the final version to which the subject exclaimed ‘that’s not a book’ – err, that looks pretty much like a book to me? :-/

Which leads us onto why both portraits are to me, unfinished…

John #2 (Verdaccio underpainting), Griffin Oil Paint, 16x20 — BJohn #2 (Verdaccio underpainting), Griffin Oil Paint, 16×20″ canvas board.

John #2 (Second version), Winton Oil Paint, 16x20 — BJohn #2 (Verdaccio underpainting), Griffin Oil Paint, 16×20″ canvas board.

Both portraits abandoned and are as finished as it will ever be due to the ‘hands incident’. I asked about five times for him to keep his hands still, just for a few minutes. He could not do it, kept moving his hands and I painted them, scrubbed them out and repainted them, five times in that final session until I gave up. He was reading the book, so kept flicking pages and not putting his hands back to the previous position.

I don’t have to have my subjects frozen still, totally rigid. I know life models and portrait models move slightly, or need to blink, cough, move sometimes due to cramp etc. But even the quite often first-time amateurs at the Portraits at the Pub can stay impressively still for 20-30 minutes, and they know to resume the pose if they move. Whereas this is more like trying to draw a wild goose that is constantly moving…not easy. I do think it’s impressive what I managed to capture from a subject that would never stay still, even for a second. But I suspect I could do far better with a more static subject!

I won’t use him as a model again as a result. These weren’t really long poses either, most were 20-30 mins per sitting (first underpainting more like 15 minutes for both portraits!), this last was more like 30-45 mins but finished most of the background without him sitting there. I had to finish the first portrait without a sitting, from memory.