Leonardo DiCaprio as "Gatsby:" Part V

Another in a series of blog entries in which I discuss the process I am using to create an oversized portrait.

On August 14, 2013 I said, “the completed over-sized portrait will of necessity differ from the small Adobe Photoshop sketch I displayed in the August 5th blog entry. In order to demonstrate that variation from sketch to painting I will compare the first two completed panels to the first two squares of the sketch in a future blog entry.”

Today I am presenting that comparison, and I list some of the differences I see below.

1. The obvious difference is the painterly quality with very visible brushwork versus the fuzzy quality of the Photoshop sketch.

2. I also notice immediately that despite using the grid, my drawing is more angular than is the Photoshop sketch.

3. I have used much more blue in the painting than is in the Photoshop sketch.

4. The eye is slightly larger in my painting than it is in the sketch.

5. There are lines drawn with the brush at the edges of some of the shapes in the painting. An example is the line around the left edge of the iris.

6. I must do some work on the nostril in the painting.

7. There are fewer dull colors in the painting which tends to make it have a flatter appearance than does the Photoshop sketch

I am sure that the viewer will find many other differences. I would not mind seeing some of those observations here.

Leonardo DiCaprio as “Gatsby:” Part IV

Another in a series of blog entries in which I discuss the process I use to create an oversized acrylic portrait painting.

The second 30” square (column 1, row b) is almost finished. Once again, I must pause and begin work on the next 2 squares (column 2, row a and row b) in order to know exactly how to finish this square. The pause is necessary to make sure colors, brush strokes, and patches of color match across squares.

The square looks almost nonobjective though the shape of Gatsby's nose in the lower right side of the picture plane (as I face it) is malapropic.* It just looks wrong. I had to reexamine the original sketch repeatedly as I painted to make sure it was not incorrectly represented.

In the next entry I will compare the two finished painting sections to the original squared sketch in order to demonstrate how these diverge from the original miniature concept.*2  I promised to do so in the August 14th entry.



Notes

*malapropic is a word used to describe the misuse of similar words with different meanings in language. Never the less, Gatsby's nose looks as though it is an incorrectly used shape here, and somehow the sliding of meaning from words to images seemed appropriate in my own meta malapropic word usage.

*2 Back in ancient history, say about 1961, when I was a junior in High School the term(s) "squared" and "squaring" were used to signify the method of drafting a grid on top of a small sketch in order to enlarge it into a much larger grid on wall, ceiling, canvas or panel. Today it seems that the term used is always, "grid." I can find few references to the term squared or squaring except as these apply to algebra.

Leonardo DiCaprio As Gatsby: Part III

Another in a series of blog entries in which I discuss the process I am using to create an over-sized portrait

The first panel of six is almost finished.

The 5 and foot by 7 & 1/2 foot painting must be transported almost 150 miles, so I have chosen to break it down into 6, 30-inch squares. The 6 sections will be assembled at the installation site at Characters Gastropub in Lancaster, PA.

Panel #1,a of “Gatsby” is almost finished. This panel is the easiest of the six to work on because the colors in the other panels will have to match this one, and the edges of each must align perfectly in order for the six panels to come together as one. I am mixing large batches of the major colors and bottling them so that I will not always have to remix colors, though I will have to make and blend color on the spot when creating transitional sequences. In order to see how to do the final strokes of paint in the first panel I need to start the second because each completed panel will affect the way I see all the others. In other words the completed over-sized portrait will of necessity differ from the small Adobe Photoshop sketch I displayed in the August 5th blog entry. In order to demonstrate that variation from sketch to painting I will compare the first two completed panels to the first two squares of the sketch in a future blog entry.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Gatsby

A series of blog entries in which I discuss the process I am using to create an over-sized portrait

The Modified Image Based on the Original Still Shot From the Motion Picture

I played with the original still photo as shown in the blog entry, Monday, July 29, 2013, choosing a vertical format that included DiCaprio’s right eye, nose and mouth. Next I put that image into Adobe Photoshop and manipulated the exposure, contrast and color to arrive at an image with colors reminiscent of the Post Impressionist era. I have squared this image into six pieces. Each piece will be enlarged to 30 by 30 inches to make a painting that will be 5 feet wide by 7 and ½ feet high. I have also paired each piece with one other piece and squared each piece to form a grid 4 squares by 4 squares.

I have squared each 30-inch panel with 4 rows of 4 squares, each 7.5 inches. I have also sketched Leo’s right eye and eyebrow into the first square and begun painting. In the next blog entry I will discuss the technique used to paint this first square and the method through which I will match colors to the 5 other squares in the over-sized portrait.