This month, I am sharing a fun step-by-step of my painting of Boo Radley, beginning with the submission photograph sent to me by my client through to the final painting and some closeup detail shots.
As you see, I found a suitable cropping to allow good detail of the face and painted an initial line drawing in a medium value grey locating the major shapes of the composition and establishing the warm orange background tones I wanted to work with. I noted that the lightest areas in the photo had a cool temperature so I started by locating the highlights with a soft, pale cool blue. Then I looked for the areas of the darkest darks and painted those in with a warm dark using a lot of red in my dark mixture to make it a warm dark. From this initial fairly loose block in of darks and lights, I took care to build up all the tiny details. I added extra reflections in the eyes and nose to enhance the face. I also decided to use directional lines in the stripe pattern to bring the viewer into the center of the painting.
I hope you like my little painting of Boo. I tried to make it perfect. It will be a special birthday gift this month. That always makes me happy!
Finished painting:
“Boo Radley”
11 x 16 oil
Detail images:
