Painting the Chief Minister

Final painting: "Fabian" oil on canvas, 100cm x 73cm

For this photoshoot we tried several scenes and settled on this one, with him posing in the lobby of the Government offices at No. 6.

Step 1

I first coat the canvas with a tinted gesso so as not to paint on a white background as colour matching becomes more difficult. After the canvas is primed with several layers of gesso and the drawing is complete, I sketchily paint in the colours of the face as quickly as possible. No need to focus in on the details at this early stage.

Step 2

Next, I started to cover the whole canvas with paint. I want to avoid making a flat colour for the wall in the background, so I'm going to build it up with many layers. I want to use lots of warm hues and texture to add interest.

Step 3

Next, I started to block in the jacket and shirt while at the same time constantly revisiting the face. Refining.

Step 4

Continued with the jacket and painted in the main colour of the letters. This will need to be refined with a brushed metal texture.

Step 5

The deep blue of the suit will need to be built in several layers. Oil paint takes a long time to dry, and blues especially take ages! I get around this by painting in thin layers with an alkyd medium to speed up the drying process.

Step 6

Here, I refined the details, highlights in the jacket and hair, and the face (always come back to the face!)

Step 7

Here is a detail of the final painting, where you can see the texture in the wall. I hope you enjoyed this!

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