100 PORTRAITS IN 100 DAYS - Drouin, 14/100, © Carol Nelson Fine Art


Day 14
This agreeable looking chap looks happy because he is married to my daughter Lauren, (2/100).
Even though this is a flash photo, which I hate to paint from, I was able to add enough color to make it a somewhat interesting portrait.

People have been asking how I can do this - paint a portrait a day. Last week I wrote about the supports I'm using. Today I will cover photo manipulation.

I'm getting all kinds of photos via email and a few by USPS mail. 99% of the photos I receive have to be cropped into a square format with just the face of the person showing. If the image of the person is too small in the photo, cropping to just show the face, results in a blurry, pixilated image.

As I have said many times, a photo taken in the sun, or with a strong light source to the side, results in shadows on the face that help define the planes of the face and make it easier to paint.
Most of the cropped photos then need to be corrected for brightness, contrast, and sharpness. My photo software is Microsoft's Picture It. It's very easy to use. If I need to do more work with color balancing, I use GIMP, which is a freeware version of Photoshop.

Lastly, after the photo has been cropped and adjusted for color and contrast, I print it on my HP Photosmart 8250 printer on 4x6 photo paper. Image transfer will be discussed next week.


AND THE WINNER IS EDWARD, 9/100 !!! Maybe people were sympathetic about the trouble I had with that green reflection in Edward's glasses, but his portrait got the most votes. Second most popular was David, 5/100. Thank you for voting. We'll do it again when the next set of 10 is completed on 1/20.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

You're working late... I was just about to turn in myself when this handsome chap caught my eye. Beautiful family Carol!

Autumn Leaves said...

My my my! That Drouin is quite the handsome fellow (lucky Lauren)! I really like the angle of this one, Carol. Your portraits are just awesome to behold!

Gary Keimig said...

Quite a project and well worth doing. You are certainly off to a great start. They are all great paintings. Good luck and God bless.

Paintings by Irit Bourla said...

He is gorrrrr-geous what a good looking guy.
Beautiful family Carol.

Unknown said...

Hi Carol :
I like all the Portraits. I think my favorite is the guy with the blue and purple, and the little girl missing her front teeth with her hair blowing

Dean Grey said...

Carol!

Your daughter should be the happy one because her hubby is HANDSOME!

Fantastic portrait! Fantastic photo!

Now if you'll excuse me, I got to find me a man like that! LOL

-Dean