The 4 hour portrait challenge

I’ve recently been trying my hand at painting and it seems to be going well, so much so that I entered a competition and instantly realised I had to start painting a lot faster if I had any chance of competing properly. The rounds if accepted would involve painting a subject live!

Queue the 4 hour challenge…

The format was simple, find a reference and paint as much as I can in 4 hours. Was it simple? No. I started to realise that every minute counted, which isn’t the type of thing you are thinking when faced with making art without time constraints. This time limit instantly made me approach the pieces with a slight tenseness. This definitely wasn’t ideal but as always I was happy to persevere and I am always up for a challenge.

The picture below shows my first attempt. I used Alkyd Oils applied to a cheap A4 plywood board primed with standard Gesso. My thought process was that if the image space was only A4 size then it would be a quick process! I shall upload the time-lapse soon to my social media pages.

I’m quite happy with the hair and lips but if I am to be properly critical I found the skin tones quite challenging in such a short space of time. I definitely need to concentrate on skin colours and blending more. Perhaps some blending exercises would do me some good?

Looking back, I also wonder if a different painting method/style may lend itself better to the 4 hour timeframe? I’ve seen some artists create an underpainting completely in black and white to create the tonal balance of the piece before then applying colour through a series of thin glazes. Who knows? Onwards and upwards and watch this space for more short timeframe painting!

More details to follow,

.M.

My first 4 hour portrait. Oil on plywood board.