If you’ve been following this portrait from the beginning, you know that my concept for this portrait is to do the bedding very loose and impressionistic, with Tanner’s face in tight detail.
Here is Tanner finished now, in tight detail. Next I’ll be working on the blanket over his head, which will be detailed around his face and getting looser as I move farther away from him. That’s the plan. Once I go meticulous and detailed it’s hard for me to loosen up again. My hand and brain wants to finish it with the same tight detail. That’s why I started with the bedding — quick ’n loose…easy for me to do when that’s all that existed on the paper.
The eyes are the most critical part of a portrait, but the expression of the mouth is very important too. On the days when I work on the eyes, and then on the mouth in any portrait, I have a certain tension until I get them captured just right. Tanner’s nose was a very important feature too. When I was talking to Tammie about what she wanted me to capture about Tanner, she said his “cute little freckles” on his nose, which she loves, are important to her.
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