In this third update of a portrait in progress I show how I struggled with part of the piece before totally reworking it. As you will see in the photos below, I changed the sky and clouds of the background a number of times before I settled on a variant that I thought worked.
In Part 2 of this blog series you can see how I originally planned to include a sky with some quite large, atmospheric clouds. However as I worked on the portrait further I decided these would be just too dominating within the composition.
Painting Clouds
Image 1: I started by picking out the lights and darks of the clouds that I originally planned to feature and while I felt they were going to look quite realistic I wasn’t happy with how they seemed to run the width of the painting. I also thought they could be mistaken for plumes of pollution, not what a Bride and Groom want featured on such a reminder of their Big Day!
Image 1 | Original attempt at the clouds
Image 2: I next experimented with smaller Cumulus clouds. They were good fun to paint, blending the edge of the clouds to achieve the ‘fluffy’ appearance and giving them weight through the brown-grey shadowing but again I wasn’t happy with the way they distracted from the sitters.
Image 2 | Painting of Cumulus clouds
Image 3: Unhappy with the Cumulus style clouds I decided to start again. I also felt that the sky felt too warm and more ‘Mediterranean’ than East Lancashire so I cooled it down introducing more French Ultramarine and reducing the amount of Cerulean Blue.
Image 3 | Reworking the sky to make it cooler
Blending Cirrus Clouds
Image 4: I finally settled on a relatively clear sky with Cirrus clouds. I managed to rework the painting on a sunny day when I could replicate clouds seen through my studio window. It helped to paint the entire sky in one sitting, blending the clouds with Liquin into the blue.
Image 4 | Developed Sky featuring Cirrus Clouds
Images 5 and 6: These final two closer cropped images show how the clouds were carefully blended. I introduced some warmth to the clouds in the distance as they blended into the Pennines on the horizon (image 6).
Image 5 | Carefully blended Cirrus clouds
Image 6 | Clouds and Pennines on the Horizon
In my next update I’ll show development of the Bride and Groom as I try to refine their facial features and improve the skin tones.
Other Progress Updates:
Part 1 – Initial blocking in and under-painting
Part 2 – Building up of oil paint layers and consideration of background
Part 4 – Improving the skin tones of the bride and groom
Part 5 – Refining the detail of the bouquet and wedding dress
Part 6 – Painting the tiara and a bold change to the background
Part 7 – Finishing touches and oiling out
You can now view the completed wedding portrait in my portfolio and find out more about it here.
