The Scar (Hill)

by Godfrey J. Ellis — Acrylic 14×18 May 2023

The challenge – and fun – in this painting was the lighting on the face. At first, Merry said it looked like “a scar” across his forehead. I worked on it and think it finally came out okay!! I was also pleased with how the colors in his shirt came out. This is proof positive that a “white shirt” is not really white, as you can see. This one had grays, blues, and even some hints of reflected pinks from the flowers. You can’t see the colors in this photo as well but they are more apparent in the actual painting.

As you can see, the face is darker in the photo, above. I could have made the face darker to match closer, but I liked the skin tones as they are in the painting. It looks more flesh colored. Besides, the goal is not to reproduce the photo, but to create a piece of art.

Below is a photo of him holding his painting

Here are four photos of the portrait is it took shape.