The first is a portrait of her best friend's grandfather, who recently passed away:
To create this portrait, I worked from a variety of old photos. I wanted to show him as a determined man who had been the progenitor of a tough, strong family. A guy you'd love to meet. But I also wanted to capture a sense of history... hence the sepia-toned image. I find that a minimal color scheme is also my natural course when painting portraits.
The second portrait features a married couple:
Again, I hadn't met the couple, but I did have a set of photos. The one I finally chose to use put its primary focus on the wife. Her facial expression really captured me. She's caught in a moment of enjoyment... the soft pleasure of a kiss on the cheek. I was told that this couple were vibrant people that enjoyed life... so I went for bright colors and some simple abstraction, rather than a strict representation. By focusing on the wife's beauty, and the tenderness of her husband, I went more for a sense of aesthetic and emotional styling rather than a standard portrait. I think it works pretty well.
It's fun to do portraits. Fortunately, I received good feedback on this set! I must say, it's simultaneously flattering and terrifying to be asked to capture a person's image on canvas. If you screw up, you can make some SERIOUS enemies.
-DG
