I had the delight of painting my partner, Tony, at the co-op studio over the past two weeks.
The painting, while flawed, had a lot of nice things going on. It just needed a little love from Photoshop to adjust the proportions. Below is the resulting picture.
The colors are nice and the shadows are about the right darkness. I’m especially pleased with the volume of the lips, and the shadow on the dark side of the nose. Tony’s eyes in this picture are a bit larger than is anatomically accurate, but their depth kind of makes up for it.
The features needed a lot of digital modification to get right. I used the lasso tool and the transform function liberally to change the placement and proportion of the face overall, and the eyes, especially. The final piece is satisfactory.
However, it lacks a bit of the spark evidenced in the preparatory sketch:
I hope to have another go at this subject sometime soon 😉 He’s a real looker.
Gabriel Garbow | Artworks 
I am sorry but i couldn’t help but find it hillarious when i hear a guy call another guy “my sweetie”. It’s……………………………..ridiculous.
It seems to me that if a person was sincerely ‘sorry’ he or she might think to just keep that comment to him or herself. But this is meant to be a public forum, and we all have different belief systems and perspectives that I’d be loathe to silence. In fact, my mom once found it ‘ridiculous’ that I referred to a swimsuit that I’d just bought as, “cute”. “Don’t you mean ‘attractive'” she asked me? Nope. I meant cute. And she gets it now. So anyway.
Opinions are welcome, but let’s continue to keep it respectful…
Wow, amazing! My boyfriend refuses to sit for me
someday I will do his portrait! Great job and very inspiring.
Nail his hands to the chair. Worked for me. And even if you don’t take my advice, thank your for the compliment.
Great job..!!!
Thanks!
cool painting..
Thanks, Hugo.
If you take a little time to check out a few other posts, you’ll find some similar paintings as well as a lot of stuff that is completely different. Feel free to leave comments about what’s working … and what’s not.
Bravo! Great work, the feeling comes through clearly.
The outpouring of enthusiasm from all the new visitors has been quite moving. Thank you for your kind observation.
I’ve been having trouble with water colour, but seeing your art, it makes me want to get back into it 🙂
I have a question though. when you sketch out the painting, do you paint on the pencil or use another sheet to paint the sketch? That was always my weak spot.
Ah… good question.
Because I am most comfortable with drawing, I almost always start with a thumbnail sketch on a separate sheet – usually in a sketchbook or something. This is just to get a feel for the subject and to anticipate some of the issues I might be dealing with.
Then, I’ll either sketch as lightly as possible on the watercolor paper with pencil, or sketch with the absolute lightest wash of watercolor. This is to make sure the major elements of the composition end up in the right places… so I don’t end up without enough room for the top of someone’s head, for example. If I do this with pencil, I just leave the light pencil lines there, rather than trying to erase.
After that, I just build on top with subsequent applications of watercolor. I’ll have the thumbnail right next to me for reference as well, even if the model is sitting in front of me. It helps remind me about proportions, sometimes.
I hope this helps, somewhat.
Thanks, that helped a lot 😀
You say ‘The painting, while flawed, had a lot of nice things going on.’ I love that, because it is… well, very human. Sometimes the flaws are the best bits, they highlight what we perceive as being the perfect bits. Your work emanates a passionate nature. Beautiful! Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for your supportive comments. When I write about flaws in my paintings, most people just argue with me. They think if a piece is “good” then it can’t have problems within it, and that I’m hyper-critical of my work. I see it the way you describe: human.
Sure, a perfect painting is still something I strive for each time, but I’m learning to be happy with them, despite imperfections.
great work and finish. well done and congrats on being freshly pressed.
Thank you. It’s been great to have all the new faces popping up here.
Really cool blog! Keep posting often!
Thanks. I’ll be posting as frequently as I can! It all depends on how much art I can ‘crank out’.
wonder ful sir…………..:)
Why, thank you.
I really like the blotches of watercolour where you can see the edges. Makes it look authentic. I also like your commentary 🙂
Yeah, I am a bit enamored of the unfinished edge. As for the comments: I do put a degree of effort into them. However, this post had only a couple of sentences in it, until I heard it had been “Pressed”. I wanted to give new visitors a fuller experience, like what you’ll find on my other posts, and give a little more detail. So I’m glad you liked the results.
It’s so funny that I happened upon your blog today! I just started with water colors (literally today) and I had such fun with them! Your painting is beautiful. Great job! PS thanks for the inspiration, too!
Stick with the watercolors. They are an unforgiving medium, but will produce lovely pictures often enough. The only thing you can do is practice, practice, practice, and take all the ‘bad’ paintings as learning experiences.
Amazing pic! I don’t think you need to photoshop it though!
Thank you. I may not have been clear in my explanation. The picture posted in “My Sweetie” has already been photoshopped. I’ll take it as a compliment that it’s hard to tell.
In the original, the proportions of the head were very odd.
What wonderful art! I like your choice of colors. Thanks for sharing.
Did you say sharing or over-sharing? (jk) I appreciate your enthusiasm. It’s my pleasure to share.
Great job. I like your watercolour verymuch 🙂
Well thank you. I hope you like the others I;ve posted, equally well.
Yes I do. Watercolour is my fauvorite way of expression, after dancing.
Following you
Your love is so lucky to have a partner to take so much trouble to come up with a sketch. The emotion that went into creating this portrait is the only thing that is more beautiful than the portrait itself.
Thank you for your thoughts on this. I have done a few portraits of Tony over the years, but none of them is as great as the genuine article.
A good piece.
Thank you.
Great portrait ….. I’m your fan and follower now 🙂 🙂
Wow, thanks. I’ve had followers before, but you might be my first fan!
It’s very Cool and nice.Thanks for the share Your art design.thumb Up.
Many Thanks.
aoqy.wordpress.com
You’re welcome. I try to share some of the the less successful painting attempts, too, if you look around my blog. It’s important for all of us to remember that good art usually has a lot of “false starts” preceeding it.
I agree.In fact,80% people learn from their mistakes,from their mistake or “hands down” they learn something that their could be done in correct exposure..
In addition,they were on the right place and learn something from your design.It’s very good start.so i hope that those people out there never “give up” and work smart not jump straight to work hard.
Good luck for you guys!!
cheers,
Many thanks
aoqy.wordpress.com
Great picture! 😉
Thank you.
I’m not a painter or any sort of artist… but I admire your paintings… Loved your Amaryllises. Will keep an eye out for your blog 🙂
Thank you for the compliment.
Those amaryllises were quite nice, What is frustrating about them is the shape of the paper I used: it doesn’t work very well with most off-the-shelf frames! Oh, well. Glad you liked them.
Goodness I’ve been looking at your other works along with this one and all I can think is… I wish I had this kind of talent! What it must be like to be able to sit down and make a work of art. I’ve tried painting before, but let’s just say I must not be a natural. Either that or I can call it abstract… really, terribly abstract. ha! Oh well. BTW I love the colors you used. It’s just warm and calming, I wonder if this is any reflection of Tony? Just a thought!
Great work and have a nice day!
The color choices were not plotted out with any ideas in mind, but the subconscious has a way making us smarter than we know. I’ll give credit to some instinct in me for using a palette that DOES capture Tony’s character, as well as his outward appearance. Thank you for the kind words and the good questions.
Well you definitely captured how handsome he is! 😉
Great work. You are quite talented! I’m unable to draw a simple stick figure.
Thank you for the compliment.
There are a lot of valuable life skills at which I am completely useless. Through some combination of talent, practice, and luck, however, I have been able to be *not* useless at art. 😉
mind blowing my friend
Wow. That’s quite the compliment. Thank you.
This is beautiful!! I’ve put down the brush for a while, but watercolor was always my favorite medium. Definitely looking forward to more of your work!
Thank you, Charmsie. I have a few digital works in the pipeline, but also have ideas about a new watercolor series which I might get started on tonight. The portraits are from a weekly session that I run at my studio/co-op, so there is a new one almost every week.
Reblogged this on artattack.
Hi there!
That’s a really good painting, and I agree, good colours! Well done!
Thanks for sharing 🙂
You’re welcome. If you poke around the blog, you see that I tend toward the very ‘vivid’, color-wise. The more natural palette here seems to have struck chord with folks.
Very nice portrait..its a great work..
You are too kind. I had a good subject to work with.
Nice work. I’m no artist but very unique colors.
Thank you Clarissaki. I ended up choosing colors that were earthy and warm, which probably adds to the charm of the painting. I just added an early pencil sketch to this post, in case you want to check that out, now.
Tony is one fine looking man. One thing I’ve noticed, Gabriel, is that when you love the subjects of your paintings, as you obviously do in this one and others like your paintings of your brother and sister-in-law, you paint in much more detail and with more vivid colors. You know these people on a more personal, deeper level so you naturally include more detail and capture the subtle characteristics of their personality. This painting is stunning–your best work to date. As usual the hair is perfection, and Tony’s eyes are mesmerizing, so liquid and intense. I love this painting.
I am glad that my love comes though. Thank you so much for the detailed and insightful observations!
🙂
Quite nice!
I agree…very nice portrait. Hope Tony likes it too.
He does.
Thank you, Elena.