Learning All The Time

This was an A2 oil on canvas and was difficult!

It was painted from a proffessionaly taken photograph. By the time the image had got to me it was edited and smoothed out, which proved to be more of a challenge than you would expect.

It seems that, as I am used to creating from a raw image, one that was air brushed and digitally simplified was a struggle. The extra colours that make up skin tone weren't there when I was looking for them, so in my mind I made them up. Needless to say this didn't work until I realised what was going wrong.

Once I realised what was going wrong, I proceeded to create a picture with minimal detail and colours and that seemed to work for me. I learnt from this and next time I do a similar picture it should be better and I won't be re-painting sections of the picture, which always causes a compromise to quality.

I am pleased with the bride, I got the likeness pretty quickly for her. However the groom proved to be the struggle. The expression on his face along with the simplified image meant I became unstuck at one point.

Overall though I think the picture turned out to be successful and a good likeness of the newlyweds and at the end of the day that is what I am striving for, for my clients. To create a quality piece that captures something special and personal.