I was commissioned to paint this man’s portrait by his son who is living in the US. He asked me to create this portrait late last year. It is of his father, who sadly passed away in 2022. I posted the painting to his mother living in Dublin.
It was a very interesting project for me. The photograph I worked from was a vintage one taken when my client’s father was much younger. The photo is black and white and my client asked me to colorize it based on some more recent photos of his father as an older gentleman.
The client was delighted with the resulting painting and emailed me upon receiving the scanned image:
Hi Ivana! Wow, looks fab…looks fantastic. Thanks very much….Awesome thanks again. It really looks great. We are a big family so will make sure to send some more business your way.
Garrett, on commissioning the acrylic painting of his father, Dublin, Ireland
I worked at 30 x 25 cm in acrylics on stretched canvas. I organised a simple off-white limed wood box frame for the canvas. This created a lovely shadow gap all around the canvas.
I worked in thin layers of acrylic washes, keeping the background a little looser and covering the skin areas in thicker paint. I used subtle tones for the skin which worked well with the blues and blacks of the background and suit. My client asked me to paint his father’s suit in dark blue with a navy tie and pale blue shirt. I started with a painted sketch in yellow ochre, moving onto basic colour blocking. I filled in the background and clothes first so I can judge the skin tones in comparison. I wanted the portrait to come together in a harmony of tones.
