Woman on Speakerphone Portrait

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 It’s kind of interesting to look back at this portrait. It was my 49th oil painting, which at the time of writing this, was 64 paintings ago. It’s kind of wild to think I’m that far behind in blogging – this was done in February, and I’ve painted more in the time since then than I had in total when I did this one. So, it’s becoming an fascinating exercise in trying to imagine what I was thinking at the time, and what I’ve learned since.

This one started out with some promise, but sometimes paintings just don’t go the way you thought they would. At some point, I felt like I lost control of the piece. In particular, I think I moved the eyes, hand, and mouth into an awkward place, and then tried to smooth things over in a less than successful way.

Once it went sideways, I also started to lose interest in it. Based on what I wrote on Instagram, I did this one on a Sunday – as it became time to get ready for the workweek, I just sort of came to end of the painting mentally. Putting it in perspective, it was certainly an improvement over some I’d attempted a month or two prior. But it’s never been a favorite. Despite that, for some reason the YouTube Shorts version became my most popular video of all time. I have no idea why, but I guess it hit their algorithm just right.

I’ve embedded the YouTube Shorts video below. I didn’t make a separate one for the “Painting to Music” playlist this time, so no classical music video to share.

Blick Art Materials

The latest time lapse videos are available on the Instagram page:

Kid commission, oil on paper. This one was a really interesting challenge due to the lower contrast in the subject reference. Since I’m kind of mid (or maybe mid to low?) experience level, I tend to lean heavily on things I’m familiar with, like deep and obvious shadows. Subtlety is still really challenging for me, and with this portrait I had to kind of exaggerate some transitions. Also, I don’t have as much experience painting kids. But overall I think it’s not a bad effort! Back at it again, oil on paper. I took a month long break from painting, but jumped back into it a few days ago. Felt great to pick up a brush again! I was worried I might have forgotten some things or built up some rust, but I seemed to settle back into my routines pretty naturally. Hope to keep at it! Taking a Break, oil on paper. I think I’m taking a short break from painting, probably a few weeks or so. Nothing bad about it, it’s just that the end of March/April is going to be pretty busy. This (likely) last portrait for a bit is one I thought would be interesting to also use for a longer walkthrough - a woman relaxing on a couch. It had some “trust the process” type moments that were kind of rough, but I was able to push the paint around and get it figured out for the most part. I thought the sofa in particular was pretty interesting to work on - it had some interesting fabric aspects that were fun to try. Poor Positioning, oil on paper. This portrait is a great example of how my lack of planning sometimes comes back to bite me. I don’t prepare much when it comes to art - the actual painting is the fun part, so I try to mostly just do that. But that is definitely reflected in how how of these turn out. I tend to place subjects too high and too far to the right. This portrait was an extreme example of that - I was way off center! But that’s okay, it happens. How many portraits does it take to really take to become “good” at painting? This one is almost 200 for me now, but I read a blog post the other day that said the author’s teacher told him it took 1000 to really become an expert. Sure enough, the author pushed for 1000 then started taking commissions. Does it really take that many? I honestly have no idea, but I do know that I’ve made a lot of progress in the 200 I’ve done. This type of head and shoulders portrait is similar to many I’ve done, but I can see definitely improvement (although there is so much still to learn and improve).
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2 comments

  • Phoebe Sparrow Wagner
    August 6, 2023 11:45 am

    Hi Jon I know you have progressed past this but I rather like this portrait. You have successfully captured the faraway look in the woman’s eyes as she’s chatting on the phone and not truly attending to her surroundings. Nicely done !

    Reply
    • Jon Amdall
      August 6, 2023 4:44 pm

      Thanks Phoebe! She definitely has a faraway look of someone not totally engaged, although I have to admit I don’t know if that was even intentional. Hope everything is good with you!

      Reply

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