All That Glitters

Finally, A Portrait

If I could have painted a full length portrait I would have (think Sargent and those long gowns). Oh to see this full outfit, a lovely formal Pakistani dress of coral and grey with many rhinestones. Sadly I didn’t have a big enough canvas. My art group decided that all ladies should own and wear dresses as flattering and colorful as this.

From Pakistan, this model was lean and beautiful, my favorite feature was her hair – short and cropped perfectly about her face. The light in this portrait was from the right front (blue) so there were not many face shadows (typically the light is from the upper left creating a shadow and interest on the face). I  had to show a bit of the top of the dress. Wow, so many rhinestones! The top of the dress was glittered with patterned rhinestones and the chandelier earrings fell perfectly against the dress’s collar. The cropped hair and chandelier earrings looked so “Wow!” together. I had to hold back from painting the full sparkle, choosing to focus on the chandelier earring and lighter side of the top of the dress.

I will have to ask around for art opinions on painting rhinestones and sparkles. I know there is a John Singer Sargent where one diamond earring in a portrait is a white bright blob and it reads “diamond.” Anyone know the name of that painting?

 12x16, oil on canvas