Ethan With a Cap

Hello Friends:

I painted Ethan, a young teenager, in open studio last night. I like painting with a time constraint because it forces me to use lots of paint in broad strokes from the beginning. I try to get the major shapes right in the beginning, and spend most of my time doing this. The details aren't addressed until maybe the last 15 minutes of the session. I never know until the very last few minutes if the portrait will be a success or not. But one thing is for sure: if I didn't spend the time to get the structure right, the details won't help a bit.

As John Singer Sargeant would say, "The features of the face are like the spots of an apple". In other words, the structure of the head is the most important part of the portrait.