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Add texture
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Posted
Layers on layers on layers, I think - which acrylic will help you to do; think of the fabric, try to achieve it in layers on dried layers - oil paint is 'easier' to achieve this sort of texture, but it all comes back to layers of paint on dried paint; you could use mediums to bulk out the paint, but ultimately it comes back to adding one surface on top of another, working with half-dried paint to achieve the texture. You can fake it with thin layers but it never looks right in my opinion - whereas the sheer textural quality of thick paint has its own rewards.
As always - practise on bits of cardboard and watercolour paper: the technique won't come at once, but once you've grasped what the paint can do, you'll get there - texture is hard to achieve, but you'll get there if you keep prodding along and experimenting with it. And I'm quite sure you, of all people, will work this out.
Posted
All artists have struggled with this who have ever attempted portraiture: I watched a painter a good many years ago (on television) who was painting the uniform of a German general (his politics were slightly to the right of Genghiz Khan, but never mind...). He spent hours painting the weave of the cloth on the general's jacket - the weave, mind you, not just the colour. Every stitch, the warp and weft - you felt that you could have peeled this garment off the painting and worn it, had your principal desire in life been to look like the chief of staff of the Wehrmacht. By the end of the process, he had re-created the late General Franz Halder in photographic likeness - you couldn't fault the technique, if what you wanted was an heroic representation of a military figure which told you nothing, hinted at nothing, of the man behind the uniform. Which is my way of suggesting you don't get too hung-up over the texture of cloth, not that I think you would - this artist had become obsessive about depicting every detail to the point of it becoming an illness: you marvelled at the skill, while finding it mildly unsettling.
So don't worry about it too much - texture is something that artists achieve over many years of examining the way, e.g., cloth moves and drapes: tweed isn't only a hairy fabric, it's also quite a stiff one when new, and moulds to the form when older but still gives the impression of thick, serviceable, protective cloth: represent that and you're half way there; layering will do the rest.
Posted
Sorry I can't help with with this one, but I have a question for you. Do you know what colour the military nurses wore in WWI? ( I aim to paint a commemorative portrait of my great aunt who worked in WWI in the military corps., but I only have a black and white photo. Your thoughts would be appreciated.
Posted
Might be able to help if you'd post the photo, because military nurse covers a lot of ground (as did some of them, tee hee.....). The Queen Alexandra Nursing Corps for instance wore (still do, I think) red capes - others wore a variety of different uniforms, most of them a blue serge: but AG should be able to tell you if anyone can, with his military connections.
Here is Aunty Edie, Robert. Red looks possible.
Posted
I don't know, but I suspect that's a blue - the red was the QANC cape, which comes over the shoulders. Blue was more practical - easier to hide marks, cheaper to make garments dyed with it. But - I shall do what research I can, or lean on AG: not too hard, obviously, because of his bad ankle....
This isn't a Queen Alexandra nurse, though, I think.
Posted
There's this one - the colour looks like grey, or blue-grey. There were Queen Alexandra Nurses, VADs, and untrained volunteer nurses, plus St John's nurses, and possibly more. Quite a bit on Google - there's a site called Scarlet Finders - will try to find the link. http://www.scarletfinders.co.uk/150.html
Have a look - should keep you busy!