Portrait - creating mood & atmosphere

In preparation for this exercise I made reference to works by other artists i.e. Monet, Modigliani and Picasso.

I particularly liked Picasso's "Girl in a Chemise" and Modigliani's "Portrait of a young woman seated". Using my wife as my model I produced some pastel studies in my sketchbook inspired by these reference pieces. I wanted to create an image that expressed happiness/cheekiness without being completely true to life. I wanted to use a pose similar to Modigliani's but employing a dark background as used by Picasso.

I liked the joy, warmth and happiness expressed in the image of my wife wearing a wig (figure on the left). However, I was attracted to the cheekier image on the bottom right created by elongating my wife's shape and stylising key features.

I played with this idea creating a rough collaged image. Before proceeding further, I decided to research Modigliani's work and in the process came across a study of Vogue covers (Packer,William: The Art of Vogue Covers, 1909 - 1940) which included examples by Helen Dryde, Lepape and Benito produced in the 1920's where features had been elongated. I produced some reference sketches of both the Vogue images and works by Modigliani from 1917-1919.

Working with a photo reference, I experimented with the elongation of my wife's features based on the Modigliani pose above (except in my version the left hand is on the right breast).

Having enjoyed producing the collage, I decided to work in a mixed media format for this exercise using mount board as a support. Prior to setting out the image on the mount board, I referred back to some earlier tonal studies using side light from a north facing window.

I then marked out the approximate position of the image on the mount board support using a chalk pencil indicating where the highlighting would be. Tissue paper was then applied with PVA glue and allowed to dry before applying a base layer of white household emulsion paint mixed with acrylic paint.

I used a green acrylic paint for areas that would be exposed skin. I applied a purple background and then started to work up the hues of the portrait. I realised that although purple had looked fine in my earlier pastel sketch, now that I was using slightly different hues in acrylic colour the skin tones were not contrasting sufficiently with the background. I referred back to Ostwald "The colour primer",Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1969 recommended by my tutor in order to re-assess colour contrasts and chose to replace the purple with a blue green. I also adjusted the expression of the face, slimmed and emphasised the muscles in the neck and thinned the hand and fingers.

I am pleased with the expression and overall effect of the final piece which has achieved what I had set out to create. The colour of the lips are less pronounced than I had intended but they seem to work in an under-stated way. I have tried various skin tones as I have worked up this portrait and in future intend to experiment with colour mixes prior to starting the final painting. I prepared some pencil studies of hands but working in paint is more complex and needs some more practise to achieve something more life like. I enjoyed creating the textured surfaces with tissue paper and creating highlights/grey tints to the hair by running a painting knife over the textured surface.