Wednesday 25 July 2012

Bull_Goes_Hunting

This is my latest Indian portrait. It is of an old Indian photographed by Edward Curtis around 1900 (?).


Bull_Goes_Hunting Apsaroke Indian 
www.firstpeople/us

What a face! Obviously old (ancient?) with greying hair. The Apsaroke, better known as the Crows, a name given them rather contemptuously by the whites, were a warlike tribe although not especially numerous, who inhabited the Rocky Mountains. In the Indian wars of the mid to late 1800s they frequently served as scouts for the cavalry against their deadly enemies the Sioux and Cheyenne.


Bull_Goes_Hunting 16" x 12" Centenaire 140lb (300gm) Not 

I initially made a careful drawing, not over detailed, and used a limited palette with Cadmium Red, Quinacridone Rust (Graham PO48) , Raw Sienna and Cobalt Blue (Rowney PB72) plus some Cerulean for the skin tones. The hair was varied dilutions of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna. After the initial washes I let it become fully dry and then added the furrows and fissues in the face.  Finally, the following day I applied some white goache quite thickly in places shown as white in the photograph. 

Brushes were the Isabey Kolinsky sables Series 6228 sizes 4, 6 and 8.

4 comments:

Yvonne Harry said...

Lovely skin tones Peter. Really nice to see it finished

Peter Ward said...

Thanks Yvonne. I still have this problem of a 16" x 12" portrait painting being `squared up'. This results in the head being distorted slightly, shortened vertically and widened horizontally.

Ray Maclachlan Art said...

The warm and cool areas of the face are excellent Peter.
They add character to a face full of character. I would like to see the end of the nose warmer, like the red corner of the eye.

Peter Ward said...

Thanks for commenting Ray as always. I can easily adjust the painting and often do when pertinent comments are made.