Painting Request

Last summer I was approached by Queen Xristinia about creating a couple of portraits for retinue gifts for two of her retinue staff. I was extremely honoured by this request. She requested two portraits that would include her and the recipient in each one. I have done a couple portraits before and was excited to do it, but knew that this would be a bit stretch for me and didn’t want to mess it up.

To start off I cut some hardboard to a size that I wanted and then prepped them using a gesso mix that I get from Natural Pigments. It is a combination of rabbit skin glue, chalk and marble dust. To apply I mix it with some water, heat and then let cool. When I am ready to use it I warm it up again as it becomes a bit jelly like and apply a coat to the boards. When they are dry I will sand them smooth and then apply another layer. This takes anywhere from 5 to 8 layers to get the thickness that I like.

My process from here is mostly as follows

a) I transfer the image to the board using a grid pattern method. I draw a grid on a photocopy , then on the board and use this as guides when drawing to keep the locations of the features and the sizes accurate

b) Next step is a grisaille under painting. It is a mixture of German black and titanium white. I am not comfortable using lead white, especially in a powder form, so I use titanium. Also, I have been reading that Zinc white causes oil paints to become brittle and after a few years paints made with zinc white can start to peel. I take this layer as far as I feel is needed. I want a strong foundation with the values if the figures sorted out and the main features modeled. If I am planning on glazing a section, I want to get as much detail as possible so I don’t have to

c) After this I start to apply colours to the sections. I tried to work one section at a time, the face, the coat, the collar … I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t making up new paint all the time, or having some dry out in because I was going back and forth.

I worked on the painting of Almathea first, then moved to the second one after it was mostly done. I like to set a painting aside and come back to it later on. I find it easier to see where I am going off track.

I find that I really enjoyed painting the fabric and collars. I like trying to simulate the different textures. Xristinia’s coat and collar I really enjoyed doing. I like the richness of the paint and the colour. The fur texture came through well.

I am not as happy with the faces themselves but am encouraged that there is a definite progression from earlier portraits. I plan to start drawing more to build up the skill set needed so they keep improving.

I found that painting 2 figures in a painting was very different that just one. Maybe because it was distracting, not sure but I did find it more difficult. Not a more work thing, but a division of focus issue. Below are some progress shots. Sven’s image went through many transformations before the final ( sorry the first image Sven)

Almathea and Xristinia