Saturday, 31 March 2012

More Miniatures

Tina
T I N A
While watching one of those many Antiques programs on TV the other day, I saw a young lady who spent a lot of her time painting miniature portraits. She was very good, and it got me wondering if I could do something like that.

You may remember my last foray into the world of miniature a while back with a watercolour painting of a terrace in Bath, England. Well, just for a little diversity, I thought I'd have a go in acrylics this time.

The painting of Tina here is 5"x5" and is the smallest painting that I have done to date. Even so, I did spend quite some time on it, as I am still learning with this medium - but I think at last that I am getting somewhere with it!


source photo
I have no idea how to use acrylics properly (if there is a proper way). As most of the work on this has been done with small brushes, I've found myself using the current brush to mix the colours rather than the palette knife, pulling in different colours as needed. In the larger areas, I've used the paint well watered down to start with, then adding layers of thicker paint for detail.



The young here has lovely soft skin, so I've found myself adding water and flow improver to blend the subtle skin colours together rather than leaving hard edges to the brush strokes.


This painting has now been framed, and is in a small exhibition at the Market Harborough Building Society. This is an excellent initiative by this company to host works of local artists for free, giving us much needed publicity.



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8 comments:

  1. Barbra Joan31 March 2012 at 07:36

    You seem to be on the right track Frank ... whatever it is your doing keep doing !
    I'm in the same league as you when it comes to acrylics. Don't know a thing about them.. but maybe that's why yours turned out so well...!! sometimes ignorance is bliss.! BJ

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  2. Sandra Busby1 April 2012 at 10:22

    I have a friend who has recently painted an entire series of about twenty, teeny-weeny acrylic paintings, all of trees in and on canvas boards at just 3" x 4"! She framed six of them equally spaced in one frame and I must say, it was really effective! She spent about 2.5 hours on each. I love the idea of doing a small painting and finishing it in a day - particularly after these long-winded bear paintings! I think the portrait is gorgeous! Great job indeed! :0)

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    1. _Frankb103 April 2012 at 06:01

      Thanks Sandra, do have a go at miniatures, the results are swift.
      I think your recent bear paintings are phenomenal!

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  3. Crystal Cook2 April 2012 at 15:15

    Beautiful Frank! I REALLY like this a lot! Her expression is simpl;y fabulous. :) And congrats on the nice place to display your art too!

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    1. _Frankb103 April 2012 at 12:11

      Thanks Crystal, I actually quite like this acrylic paint now I'm getting used to it a bit.

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  4. Angela Ooghe2 April 2012 at 20:35

    Wonderful portrait. Her pose and expression are so natural. Also, congratulations on the exhibition.

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    1. _Frankb103 April 2012 at 12:15

      Thanks Angela, I haven't had chance to nip in and see the exhibition yet, but it is on until the end of April.
      Tina has done some lovely poses on her Flickr page which is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tinaimel/

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