Contemporary Portraits
I frequently use photographs in the creation of contemporary portraits; I find that if one takes 20-30 shots of the subject, there are always one or two which stand out as being an ideal basis for a portrait.
One important advantage of this is that the client then has a good idea of what the portrait will look like, which is not the case when painting solely from life. Ideally, I will use life for the final stages.
The examples shown below are life-size, but the canvas is only about 14 inches high. This means that they can be hung satisfactorily in houses with low ceilings, and do not have to be viewed from a distance, as tends to be the case with head and shoulders and half-length portraits.
Click thumbnail for larger version
