Engagement Portrait I, oil on canvas, 24"x24", 2022

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Back to oil painting!  It had been a minute since I painted in oils and there was a brief moment there where I was like... habla español?

This painting felt similar to this candid shot in the sense that the scene is completely natural, and the composition/perspective is almost paparazzi-like.  The big difference with this painting from basically every other one I've done, aside from the medium, is the color pallet.  The client was very clear that he wanted a very dark and moody painting.  Then, as much as I reached for the blues and greens, and I used them in the way I normally do in my portraits, I ended up applying them differently in the sense that they are almost blended in.  I say almost because I recognize what real blending looks like, and this isn't quite it.  So there are blues and greens on faces and body parts, but the medium just behaves differently.  Or maybe someone more experienced can explain it to me.

I enjoyed playing with layering for luminosity and also for depth.  The image in the mirror was painted in the same color pallet as the reflection, but then I added two layers of a very transparent blue/green in order to give it that filtered effect.  I loved this painting and truly enjoy working in this larger scale.  If I come up with more info to put here, I'll come back.  Thanks for your time.

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Painted from a photograph taken by Geovanni Hernández and provided by the collector.

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