jimi hendrix portrait: finishing steps

jimi hendrix portrait

i started out this painting session fixing the nose a bit with some lifts and re-application of the darker pigments so that it was a little more in the perspective of the piece as a whole.  after that i painted the near eye and its associated socket pretty much the same as i did its mate on the other side.  the side plane of the face painted with alizarin crimson permanent and burnt umber was the next step and then i put in the hair with mixtures of ivory black, mineral violet, burnt sienna and ultramarine blue. i tried to put in the edges with a bit of dry brush but not doing this very often i didn't succeed entirely. i also added a medium wash of raw umber, alizarin crimson and quinacridone gold on top and behind his head attempting to lose some of the edges of the hair...some of which succeeded.  to start the hand i put a light application of alizarin crimson and burnt sienna over the ends and faded it out as it went more proximal up each finger. when this dried, i could paint each finger leaving the nail part untouched with burnt umber and sienna. i darkened the areas around the knuckles. then i put in the shadow on the back of the hand with cobalt blue.

i thought that it would be impossible to make his clothing more flamboyant than his real clothes but right now i think i may have done just that. i may feel differently in the morning.  the green on the cuff which seemed like a good idea at the time was a mistake in retrospect.  some minor shadows on the cigarette and his shirt finished things on the figure itself.  the right side looked a little bare so i splashed on a bit of dilute cerulean blue, alizarin crimson, and raw sienna and pushed it around a bit with the brush allowing some to drip down unimpeded.

all in all, i thinking that the likeness is good. i may have overdone things with the coat and clothing. looking back 10 days or so ago i think that i have a much better idea how to paint the portrait of a person with darker skin and look forward to trying a few more. i need to move on to painting some native americans now and have a number of photos for reference and inspiration material. we'll start tomorrow if all goes according to schedule. until then, be well.