Knows nose.
David is always giving me feedback about my work, usually commenting on composition and color choices, but also helping me to get out of my own head by pointing out issues I may be having an individual’s likeness. Of course, when it’s his face I’m working on, he’s particularly involved—a person’s image has a way of getting her-his special attention. My partner doesn’t think I’ve ever quite mastered his nose.
reference photo for and detail image of David
In this, my first portrait of my sweetheart, I can see what he means: the nose I painted has ski-jump feel, nothing like the comparatively pointier look his nose actually has.
reference photo for and detail image of David (The Astronomer)
And, in this, my second portrait of David, I still hadn’t completely figured out his nose, but, unlike my partner, I’m not convinced that it matters all that much. A nose usually does not serve an expressive purpose in a portrait—and by that I mean that, while the artist can be expressive in the painting the shapes and lines of the nose, the sitter can’t alter her-his expression with her-his nose. Unless the nostrils are flared, the nose’s only function is as an anchor around which to build the face.
reference photo for and detail image of DavidDavidDavid (Clown-Angel)
To my mind, the main ingredient of a person’s likeness is her-his breath or movement. A portrait’s success is in its ability to capture the dynamism specific to a subject rather than her-his particular features. In this portrait, my third painting of David from around the same time as the first two, I feel like I’ve finally touched on something important about who he is, but it could be argued that this painting contains the least faithful reproduction of his nose to this point!
reference photo for and detail image of David
Profiles have a special way of calling an artist out about exact likeness. If a portrait is evaluated solely in terms of features accurately reproduced, the most recognizable image of an individual is actually her-his profile (it’s for this reason that profiles are used on coins and in mug shots).
In this 2007 portrait of David, I’d had a bit more practice with my sweetheart’s face, but I was still not quite copying his nose. However, without the source image to reveal every detail I overlooked in my painting, the portrait as a whole conveys his personhood.
reference photo for and detail image of It Doesn’t Matter
In this portrait, created in early 2006, just a few months after the first three, I was already getting more of a handle on David’s face. The painting’s nose is still a little upturned, but the spacing of the David’s features is close to perfect, and this is crucial. After breath and movement, the relationship of the individual features is the most important ingredient to a likeness.
reference photo for and detail image of Over Grown Up (Man)
In fact, that’s how the nose plays its role in likeness. It is a focal point of the face purely by reason of its location, and that’s also why it is a good place to start building a portrait. If an artist can capture the angle and general shape of the nose, the rest of the face will follow easily, no matter its orientation or expression.
In this detail image of a series of portraits of David, my partner’s face is in profile but also viewed slightly from below. The nose in my portrait is, again, not an exact reproduction of the source image, but it does its job in revealing the position of the face in relation to the viewer.
reference photo for and detail image of Over Grown Up (Man)
This portrait is part of the same series of portraits as the one above. Looking at it along with the juxtapositions of other painting details and their source images, it becomes clear how far I often stray from the “reality” of the photographs. But then it’s the prerogative of the painted portrait to exchange a hard and fast nose for a collection of layered brushstrokes which evoke more than they represent.
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CATEGORIES: - Portraiture - Practice -
(3) Comments / Commentaires: Knows nose.
I like to see how features morph over generations but I’m not certain that I observe it more than most. I do know that I have a tendency to notice features of individuals and then comment on them (and sketch them too sometimes!) to the point where I make people feel awkward. Last night, I saw an old friend of ours and it was all I could do to NOT point out the way the fold of skin over his eye was like nothing I’d ever seen!
Your show has so inspired me. I think you are such an amazing artist and I feel so lucky to have met you in person. Your show was so powerful and moving.
Theresa...
Ha ha ha! You once made a comment in high school that I had a very interesting nose, as you sat and sketched it, and for some reason that comment has stuck with me. Funny how memories work. I’d thought of it a few more times lately as people try to decide which features my daughter has from my husband and myself. Makes me wonder if you observe that type of thing more than most when looking at parents and their child(ren)?
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