Pietro

Pietro

Oil on canvas, 8x10

My third human, and I really like this one. Maybe the answer for me is to do men, or to demand that people close their mouths so I don't have to paint teeth.

I'm kidding, of course. The answer is to paint a thousand faces, and learn how to do it. After all, everything on a face is simply a shape, with light and dark on it. That's it.

I've been told that if I am having trouble, and I'm painting from a photograph, I should turn the photo upside down, and turn the painting upside down. It will keep me from painting "nose," and instead, have me painting a shape with a light side and a dark side.

I found out something interesting in making this painting of Pietro. Hair matters.

Sounds infantile, I know - but I always figured hair was sort of extra. Decoration. I had Pietro's face, and I could tell it was pretty close - but when I put his hair on, it nudged his face into "very close." So that's a breakthrough in thinking for me. And it's especially good because painting hair is much like painting dogs - and I know what I am doing when I'm painting dogs!