Lunatique's Sketchbook

[Lunatique]

Yeah I totally get that dilemma. I don't think it's a matter of spending less time or more time probably. It's more that the nuances in the final version include very small changes to corners of the mouth, brows, eyes and so on that make the face look expressive. It may be possible to capture these things in a blockier stage, if difficult. I wonder if a solution could be to paint over the portrait again once the nuances and life have been achieved in the face to simplify parts of it and bring it back to a looser stage, yet retaining the good qualities the detailed version has. That might seem to be a somewhat artificial way of making a painting look alla prima when it really isn't done that way. I know from reading accounts of him painting, that the painter Sargent, for example, scraped down and repainted his finished portraits many times before arriving at the final result. Though his paintings look to be done quickly in one sitting, it took a lot of preparation and attempts to make something look fast and effortless. Maybe it's similar for you?

That being said when I look at the painting close up I can see that there are already some parts that are simple strokes. And the seemingly tight parts are not overly detailed. So I'm not really sure I see any 'unnecessary' details in any case.

I've actually done what you suggested, where I felt I over-rendered and then would do another pass to rough up the painting to make it looser. I don't like doing it for the same reason you mentioned. I do wonder if Sargent, Zorn, Sorolla, and Schmid had been born in the digital age and grew up with digital art, how would that have changed their sensibility and approaches?

From what I can tell, the difference between what the artists I admire do and what I do, is their brushwork is significantly more economical. That is the byproduct of having time-limitation due to painting alla prima, but the approach has also created a look that's very alluring to a lot of artists, including digital artists working from photo references without the time constraints. When I analyze works from Craig Mullins, Wangjie Li, Yizheng Ke, and others who draw and paint within the realm of that sensibility but work digitally, I try to figure out what they're doing differently from what I'm doing. They're basically going after the same alla prima look but they're working without the time constraints and using photo references, just like me. So, my conclusion is I need to be more ruthless in how I simplify, be more economical in my brushwork, and push some areas into further abstraction in order to achieve the look I want.