One day it dawned on me that Jacqueline Kennedy was most beautiful and interesting. So, I had to paint her. I bought a black and white photo calendar of hers and picked out the image I wanted to paint.
I really didn't have any experience with portrait. But I was inspired by her face. What I did noticed most were her eyes. I knew they were deep set and wide-spread. If I were to capture her in a painting, I have to get her eyes right. Then I noticed her thick lips and the arch of her strong eye brows. Then I noticed the 1960's hairstyle. She had a thick head of hair. Almost helmet like. Out of her whole face, her nose was the least noticeable.
I think I did ok. At least when people see the painting, they recognize it to be Jackie. (from the White House era) I recently heard that the reason Jackie wore those large sunglasses she made famous was because her eyes were so far apart and that regular sunglasses would not fit her. Interesting.
Lessons Learned and Hindsight - What makes a face unique? I remind myself when I paint a portrait - always look and "see the parts" of the face. What stands out the most? What stands out next and so on. Try to capture them all.
"Jackie" was painted in October of 2002. Since then, I have finished another portrait - that of my husband, Jonathan and penciled a self-portrait which remains unfinished. Hummm, I wonder why???
