Capturing Paintings in Progress

In the past two years I find myself more interested in documenting the progress of my paintings, because I have begun to appreciate the process as a journey that it worth reflecting back on. To me the underpainting, or the work in progress, can often stand alone just as strong as the finished painting. Most recently, I started taking professional photos of the work in progress to sell as prints. There is an entirely different feel to the work in the first sessions in my work, often appearing more sketchy and illustrative than the finished image. Some people might actually prefer this style over the finished look.

So, why bother finishing the painting if it seems to be at a finished state already? Sometimes it is fun to do quick paintings that have a loose feel to them, but often times I enjoy spending time with my oils and really getting detailed in my conceptual portrait paintings. Usually I have a vision of how I want the final product to look and the work in progress is usually a pleasant surprise that I run into along the way. I’ll be honest, sometimes I want to just be done, but once I have spent time mixing up a colorful pallet of oils, the show must go on. In other words, I have to continue the painting because I have a strong desire to paint the figure and capture all of the colors in someone’s face. To me, the skin tones can be the most challenging but also the most rewarding. I like to emphasize the subtle colors in one’s face that we don’t always notice. For example, your shirt may be lightly reflecting onto your jaw line, so I might enhance those colors to create more relationships between the colors throughout the painting. So all in all, following through with the original plans of a painting is often the route I like to choose and documenting the process can also tell a story about how I got there.

Here is one example of some sessions I did on a commissioned painting for a couple:






This is my most recent documented work that I am just finishing up on. First i sketched out the boy on an old painting of mine that I didn't care for.