Portrait of a Gent

This latest commission is of a fine looking gentleman with an obvious penchant for the finer things in life - never without a glass of bubbly and sporting his club tie, this is a head and shoulders portrait on a 10 x 12" canvas board in acrylic paint. From the selection of photos I chose these two to work from as I thought his smile revealed more of his character and there was more detail to work with but his colourful tie was to be included. First I sketched his face onto the canvas then blocked in the main shadows with burnt sienna and paynes grey. The background was roughly painted to reflect the colours of the walls in the Garrick Club and I painted skin tones across the whole of his face adding a touch of yellow ochre and crimson. I mixed the colours for his tie, and painted the shadows on the shirt and jacket. The next stage called for a finer brush: working detail into the laughter lines around the eyes, intensifying the shadows and making the mouth look realistic. Greens, purples, red, orange, browns and shades of yellow were scumbled into areas of the face where I could see them. The background was knocked back a bit using paynes grey, white and blue and finally his hair. Then the light faded and apart from a few minor tweaks in tomorrow's light, I think Chris is done!