PREPS:

I make clay maquettes in order to understand the volumes in the face and head.   These are not portrait busts, but clay studies.  After sculpting them, I feel very familiar with the subject's bone structure and how the face is constructed.

 

Small oil studies help me establish the palette for the subject's

skin/hair tone and, eventually, compostional design.

 

Drawing after drawing is worked, from very small thumbnails,

and then loose color studies, to ultimately a very detailed contour line piece which is true to the dimensions  of the proposed and final piece.

This then is redrawn on to the canvas.


Up until this point in the process, I ask those involved for their participation, i.e. input and drawing approvals. In this way, the patron is as fully aware as possible as to how I'm thinking and can voice suggestions, doubts, and additional helpful information. I then ask the patron to go; to leave me alone in the studio and allow me to be an artist.

The best pieces are done when the patron does just this: allow the artist to be the artist.

However my process allows for an enormous amount of cooperative thought during the initial stages.

When next the patron hears from me, the portrait will be almost finished. Final input is for resemblance only.

At the next studio visit, the portrait is completed. The entire process can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months.

To request  more examples of my portraits

and to ask further questions, please email me.

Portrait Process Page 1:  What I Do as a Portraitist

Portrait Process Page 3:  Pricing

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All work on this site © 2004 by Andrea Gomez, all rights reserved. Unauthorized copying, reproduction, republishing, posting or duplication of any of the material on the web site is prohibited without express written permission from Andrea Gomez. The artist reserves to herself all rights of reproduction and all copyright of her work.

Obsessively updated regularly.  Last update: March 2012