Today I measured the photograph to help me make adjustments and repaint David's head. I used cobalt blue, cad yellow, and paine's grey for his forehead after discovering that lightening his eyes to green made an impression on me. Though the coloring makes him seem older, I think, it's better than the color of the last stage of the painting. The intensity of his expression is off--he is much friendlier-looking in the photo than in the portrait.

My portrait in process, and one by a mysterious artist. The portrait of Grammy came to me with a crisp fold. One day I may have it framed anyway. For anyone reading this, never fold art in half!

Okay. So many things wrong here. I think that I adjusted the tilt of David's head. He has a lot of forehead in the photo, but maybe not enough here.
The eyes seem too large. It's amazing how a tiny distinction throws resemblance completely off.

When I draw myself, I always see my grandmother, whether others would too, I don't know. Looks like I have squirrel cheeks.

Bone structure beneath skin if too dark makes the face distorted.

Decided to paint a picture of my niece who is 8 months old in this picture. Ava was so animated at my daughter Julia's birthday party that she took all the best pictures. The way her eyebrow curves, the breath I can nearly feel as I look at her mouth captured me, but the painting doesn't show this at all.

My first mistake was probably tracing the picture instead of measuring and drawing. First of all, this is wicked cheating. Secondly, as I painted I felt like it was a bit like paint-by- numbers--just coloring in shapes, especially with her hand and arm. Blue over pink on her face seems to work--some. Making the fabric look like real fabric meant simplify, simplify and paint by dabbing.

When I come back to this painting, more layering of light colors is needed--and more light from the right side of the picture.

Julia and her Best Friend

Julia doesn't look like Julia perhaps becuase the light in her eyes is in the wrong place and the shadow above her eye is too dark. Augie looks fantastic, however. He's a noble dog! Now I can see that Julia's face is too big--that is throwing off her resemblance.

This is Julia's still-life from the yurt. This portrait reminds me of the Lion King.

Alpacas Away!

Another first portrait is really another pet, an alpaca from the farm in Belchertown. I took several young painters, ages 10-12 to the farm the summer of 2009 and we painted in the yurt. Kids did mostly still-life, but some, like me, ventured into the yard to stand in the field with the animals. I watched this alpaca for hours, posing quietly, watching me. The best model I ever worked with.

I took a long time on his face. An earlier version showed a different anatomy all together; here I've shortened the jaw, making him much cuter and young looking.

Maira 2009

Here she is. Her coat in the painting isn't anything like her actual fur, but I was so excited that the portrait was realistic and lively that I just kept painting until I felt the colors worked. Even though the angle of her face isn't quite right and her snout is elongated, the painting still feels like Maira.

Portrait painting

My name is Deborah Sacon and I've been painting and drawing more off than on for 30+ years. During the school year, I teach English and summer is my time to paint. It's taken me all this time to realize that I really need to paint to keep my soul full of life. Chronicling my paintings, I hope, will allow me to see growth in my work. Keeping a blog is brand new to me and feels pretty self-indulgent, I am self-conscious as I write this, but do so hoping that other artists, like me, will find me and participate in the conversation about making art.

In June, after having made my first painted portrait--what felt like the first portrait that I ever painted--I determined that I need to study a lot harder if I want to make REAL portrait--the sort that breathes life, that resembles the subject, is painterly and beautiful.
I'm calling "My First Portrait-ever" the one that I did of Julia and Augie ("Julia and Her Best Friend").
Being a watercolorist and landscape painter and not using oils or acrylics kept me away from the portrait as subject for the most part. I created a small egg tempera sketch one time, of a girl with a lantern, copied from a Sargeant painting, and posted here.


So I've been painting portraits with acrylics and I'm learning a lot after not having drawn faces--or figures--in about 20 years! I can remember drawing Kim Kincaid in pencil and how I worked FOREVER to get her likeness correct. Were it not for the teacher, I don't think it would have resembled her. One day, I'll look for that drawing and post it here.

I have a few finished portraits of animals to date and 3 portraits of people in the works. Some that I call finished, don't feel finished and certainly are not publishable, as in the finished sense. For my purposes here, I'm concerned with process, not product anyway.

My best works seem to be animals--not surprising since I painted cows and horses when at UMASS in the Fine Arts program. Maira, my neighbor's dog, is my favorite painting so far. It's bitter-sweet to look at the picture. I gave the portrait to Maira's owner because Maira is sick and I wanted him to have a picture of her healthiest summer. She loved being photographed that day so the painting has the life she has.