I saw this man (an artist) at the Oregon Society of Artists meeting in October 2014 and immediately know that I have to paint him. I asked permission to take a picture and transformed the rather mediocre iPhone picture int0 this beautiful portrait.
It was painted straight on Ambersand board without any preparation of the board. I want to keep the white of the board untouched as much as possible. I used the Zorn palette (Titanium white, Payne’s grey, Yellow ochre, and Cad Red medium)
I stopped touching the portrait after 90 minutes or so with the intention to keep the painterly look. I could go on with a softer brush and “feather” out the brush mark and slowly make it photographic. But to me, paintings that look like a photograph is a failure of the artist’s skill and vision.
Khanh N. Huynh, MD