How I paint portraits

[leyna55]

Recently, I received several comments which suggested that I took "heads from pictures and then ran them through filters." and possibly "stole the bodies too." Now I was annoyed, and the matter has been dealt with, but I would like to set the record straight. There are people who are justly proud of their photomanipulation and photoshop skill, but

Comments

[ashlan]

[leyna55]

Thank you *g* I thought it was obvious I paint everything, but I've had people ask (much more nicely) if it is a painting or a photo-manipulation, so I guess it does puzzle some people.

As an aside I visited Drew Struzan's web gallery recently and had a bit of an artistic epiphany (and then felt silly not to have realised sooner since I used to have several of his posters on my walls *g*). His is the style I most often see in my head when I picture how I want a painting to look. My own style is different, (and probably looks nothing AT ALL like his) but that is what I've been unconciously aiming for. Suddenly the black outlines and the cartoony realism, the colours etc make more sense!

[ashlan]

[leyna55]

Yes, I'm not sure how I completely missed that, so it was a major "doh!* moment. *g*

I just looked up the Chuck poster- its so cute, and very 80s.

That whole issue where some people think using references is copying, and therefore somehow cheating, surprises me, too, though I guess that one leaks across from (internet) art theft or using art or photos etc without attribution. It is tied into the whole misunderstanding about use of references, though.

People have odd ideas about various art styles. I'm guessing there are whole swathes of misconceptions about cartoon style art, too.

[ashlan]