PORTRAIT RESEARCH

Portrait of a Man

Velázquez. Available from: http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/437874

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

This portrait by Velazquez would be good to recreate as the moustache is interesting and would require postiche work. Depending on my models hair length, I would potentially need to think abou a wig. I would also create eye bags as flat pieces and perhaps create the bump that is on the nose (if necessary) using a closed mould.

The background and costume would not be difficult to recreate, although we are not being assessed on this, I think it is important to consider for the best outcome.

Portrait of a Man with A Goatee. Diego Velazquez. Available from: http://www.diegovelazquez.org/Portrait-Of-A-Man-With-A-Goatee.html

I like the chairosquiro style of this Velazquez painting as well as the bold texture of the brush strokes. This painting would also be suitable to use as my living portrait as it requires postiche and prosthetic pieces.

For my portrait research, I have mainly focused on men as this allows me to show postiche skills which is not possible with the female portraits.

Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato. Self Portrait. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Salvi_da_Sassoferrato

George Frederick Watts. Available from: www.wikiart.org.

This portrait by George Frederick Watts incorporates a lot of postiche work and the sitter has a strong nose which I could re-create using a close mould. Although I like this portrait, the texture of the painting is not clear and I would prefer to work from a portrait which is close up of the face.

Available from: http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/room-by-room.php

I love the gaunt look of ----- in this portrait. Recreating this painting would require serious highlighting and contouring. I really like this portrait however I am unsure that I would be able to sucessfully recreate this as I am limited with how old I can age my model. I plan to experiment with latex ageing.

This portrait would be ideal to use in my project as the sitter is not too old, yet still shows signs of ageing on his forehead for example. The hair is quite a modern style and I would not have difficulty recreating this.

This portrait by Augustus Edwin John is interesting as the sitter - Lady Ottoline Morrel - has rather a severe look to her. She has a sharp nose and pointed chin which I could recreate using closed moulds. There is no potential for postiche in the portrait - something which will be missing from all of the female portraits.

Lady Ottoline Morrel by Augustus Edwin John
Available from: http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portraitLarge/mw08219/Lady-Ottoline-Morrell?firstRun=true&sText=6095&search=sp&rNo=0

We visited the National Portrait Gallery on the 8th of October which was helpful as although I had looked at the portraits online, you cannot get the same feel for the painting as you can in real life.

THE NATIONAL GALLERY

Although I found the National Portrait Gallery helpful, I found a lot of the portraits were very similar. I felt that although there were less portraits in the National Gallery, there was more of a variety and the portraits were more interesting. Sadly the Rembrandt exhibition was not on until the next week which I was disappointed about as I would have loved to have seen Rembrandt's work in real life. This also meant that his self portraits were not on show as they were getting ready for exhitibition.

This is one of my favourite portraits in the National Portrait Gallery as the sitter has a unique look to him.

If I was to recreate this portrait, I would create a bald cap and perhaps knot hair into wig lace and lay over the cap. I like the shape of the moustache and the way that it is pointing upwards. The sitter has a lot of wrinkles around the eye area and the beginnings of jowls around the jaw.

giovanni-battista-moroni-portrait-of-a-man-with-raised-eyebrows

The sitter has a thick beard and moustache - good for postiche work

Sitter also has a pointed nose which I could recreate with a closed mould. He has wrinkles on the forehead and around the eyes - could create this effect using latex ageing.

I could create flat pieces for the eye bags.

Sitter is slightly balding at the top - would need to think of the best way this could be recreated

Portrait of Cornelis Van Der Geest by Anthony van Dyck
Available from: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/anthony-van-dyck-portrait-of-cornelis-van-der-geest

This is one of my favourite portraits in the National Gallery.

Recreating this painting would allow me to recreate large dark eyebags. I also like the difference in hair colour in the moustache and goatee.

The painting has a lot of texture in areas the forehead in particular. It would be good to experiment with creating this texture. There is also a lot of contouring on the temples and the cheekbones.