Portraits, Techniques, Likeness, and Life

Oct 1 - Oct 7: Day 49th of Friends Series

I have been drawing, painting, reading, and writing lately. As mentioned earlier, I met many new people during art show. And I cannot describe how helpful other artist have been. They gladly shared what they know and later sent more as promised. I cannot thank them enough for their help.


Portraiture

This is  a bonding process where a person tries to create his own version of how one sees. Its art and it also is science. Its 2 D in technicality and heavily 3 D for the artist. Or 4 D if you add the artist's perception to it. Artist tries to capture the essence of the model over the period of time.

Technique

There are as many techniques as there are portraitist. No single one is right or better. Some find realism to be the most disciplined form which may be true in a sense that if that's your goal in the first place. But over time, you learn to immerse in the process, and start to enjoy the process so much and so, that you hardly bother if that highly acclaimed belief of realism is only a way of seeing things.  The artistic license lets you enjoy the journey and the destination. Choose what suits you!  This is what I did for one of the works.

Likeness in Portraits

People find portraiture as hard because they think getting the likeness is not easy. Its true. Its not easy to get the likeness if you don't practice enough. There is a lot of relativity among different angles and shapes and the process requires a lot of swinging back-and-forth while creating a face.

When I do it with pause, there seems to be a harmony in the process. The focus is not on one part but the face as a whole. With this in mind, things just seem to be right. And when its right, you stop and gauge the balance. After a while, the process starts to balance itself.

Bonding Experience

I usually know when to stop. The work starts to speak for itself. It becomes a whole with its own identity and charm. At that point, artist need to take a step back and let the work enjoy its own identity. The bond between the subject and the artist moves on to next level. And that is a marvelous experience. Its too complex to explain in words.