Titan portrait in progress 11 - Not done yet...

Even when a portrait is “finished” there are changes to be made.

An artist may think a portrait is finished when they complete the depiction….but is it?

When I finished Titan’s portrait I stood back and looked at it taped up on the wall from several feet away. That’s always the last step when I complete a portrait. Sometimes I see things that need a little adjustment. Usually that’s just a few additonal pencil strokes…a few minutes work. But this time I spent a couple more days on it. 

After that, there’s an important decision only the client can make.

1

When I stood back a little distance, the tug-toy looked pale and washed out. It didn’t have the obvious bands of light brown and white like in the reference photo. So I darkened up all of the brown bands on the toy. The darkened version is on the right. I also made the red edging more prominent, especially at the top edge where the edge of the toy disappeared into the pale blue of the fabric. 

On a phone screen it may be hard to see the difference. Zoom in to see it on a small screen. 

2

I also didn’t like the balance of lights and darks in the fabric. So I darkened up the fabric where it falls toward the bottom (below Titan’s paws). You may remember I did the fabric with fast, loose, sweeping pencil strokes. Not tightly rendered detail. So I went back to that “scribbling“ style to add more dark grey-blue pencil work. 

The result is on the right. Darker values in the lower left fabric balance Titan’s dark figure better. There was too much light space all around the central figure, like he was floating in a pale bubble. Darkening more toward the bottom edge of the artwork grounded the figure more in the scene. 

I could have darkened the lower fabric in the lower right a bit more also. But I really liked the artistic quality of the scribbles there, and didn’t want to scribble over them. 😉

3

This is how the full sheet of paper looks now.

But wait, there are more changes yet to be made. 

Notice I haven’t signed it yet…..

My next step is to kick the ball back to the client for an important decision. I can’t add my signature until after the decision is made. You’ll see why in my next post.

Portrait of Titan, in progress

🎨 Prismacolor pencil on “Sky Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 16 x 20 inches

Commissioned by Alicia McCarthy.