Friday, February 27, 2009

Head Study 2


I did not paint many black peoples, let me know how do you think about this little piece.

12 comments:

Gail Kirkham said...

I would never guess that this is your first painting of a black person. You have captured the skin tones beautifully!

Jala Pfaff said...

Really nice!!

Edward Burton said...

Beautiful portrait!

Susan Martin Spar said...

Fongwei...you've done a beautiful job here. His skin tones look great. Your figure "sketches" are far superior to most artists' finished portraits.

Carolyn Finnell said...

As I prepared to paint the portraits of my good friend's (adopted) children she asked me how different it was to paint blacks, as she had only seen some of my portraits of white people. I held up my hands about a foot apart and said, "when you paint fair skinned people you use a range of tones from here to here." I then held up my hands the exact same distance apart and said, "and when you paint dark skin you use a range from here to here. The difference is with light skin you use more from one end and with dark skin more from the other." If you look at the range of colors and tones you used here, you'll see pretty much the same ones you would find on a light skinned person. Just different proportions. We all have the same pigment (melanin) in our skin (in varying amounts), and we all have the same color blood running through it.
All the same, I wish I could paint them the way you do. You are very gifted.

Dean H. said...

Excellent job, Fongwei. Just paint what you see...as you do any subject. And your work shows that is exactly what you do.

Fongwei Liu said...

Gail, as I remember, this is my third painting for black person. I feel the value doesn't bother me, but the color temperature is very interesting.

Thank you Jala and Edward!

Hi Susan, your words always encourage me!!

Carolyn, I think you are right if we paint a monochrome painting, but color will be little more complicated.

Dean.H, I agree with you if we practice on the likeness, but if the likeness is not necessary, I would like to add a few words: "Just paint what you see if the object is good enough." For better result, I think artist could make changes. BTW, nice picture!

Stephanie Anne said...

I must say - you did a great job. In my experience, the darker the skin, the more color an depth you can put into it. When I have done paintings of black people I have been amazed and intrigued by the bold colors that I could place in their skin tones without making it look contrived. Good work!

Averyl Veliz said...

Looks like Pierre to me!

Jala Pfaff said...

P.S. I remember in Paris watching a street artist do a half-hour portrait of a black man in pastel. The skin tone ended up being primarily purples. It was beautiful.

Jala Pfaff said...

Fongwei, what is your color palette for portraiture (whether African, Asian, or Caucasian)?

Fongwei Liu said...

Hi Jala, I answered a similar question in another post before, here it is:
"Some artist may have a combination for flesh tones, but I don't. I think any object in different environment will appear as different color, even painter's mood will effect to painter's feeling... so I just paint the color's relationship (worm and cool).

Generally, I have two red, two blue, two yellow on my palette, one
darker one lighter, one warmer one cooler. For example, Cadmium red vs
Alizarin Crimson."