A Portrait of a Guitarist Done in Soft Pastels

The Guitarist, a portrait painted in Lakewood, Illinois.

The Guitarist, 12×16, Soft Pastel on Board, 2/8/2012

I did a portrait of a woman wearing a sunhat and holding an acoustic guitar with a green and red background. Having a musical background myself, I very much enjoy doing portraits of musicians, and I feel that my familiarity with music and instruments aids in the rendering and positioning of them in my compositions.

This portrait provided a few challenges. One was a difference in color from the light sources. There was several banks of fluorescent lighting that seemed to have daylight bulbs and there was an incandescent spotlight. The biggest challenge is that my range of hues in pastels are fairly limited so I end up having to exaggerate these differences.

The other challenges were the addition of a couple props (a hat and guitar) which are actually very nice additions. Rendering the strings and the fret of a guitar on top of doing a portrait in the time constraints of a 2 1/2 hour sitting was difficult, but I am happy with the results.