Painting Process - Step 2 - Subject Matter

Deciding what I'll paint can sometimes be a challenge. I find that I ask myself questions like "Am I adding to a series of paintings?", "Am I experimenting" and "Will I sell it, or will I keep it?".

The subject chosen for this tutorial is a photo I took of a statue fragment from Delphi in Greece. The details in this statue are amazing and the facial features are so strong. The idea of painting the portrait of an individual who lived over 2000 years ago is exciting.

I tweaked the levels in Photoshop and pulled out some of the yellow from the photo. I then printed the image out on an A3 sheet and used it as a reference. Correcting the exposure of a photo digitally can really save time.

The composition will be quite basic. I'll crop tightly on the face and position it a bit left of centre. In my next post, I'll begin blocking in the face and background.