They are 50 cm by 70 cm ( about 20 x 27 inches)  in size, hand painted with natural oil colours. They are painted in my little workshop here in Rome, one of the world capitals of art, a stone’s throw away from the Vatican. The subjects, half-busted and on a dark limbo background are meant to resemble the typical, average, portrait commissioned by the average military man in the 18th and 19th centuries (royalty could afford much, much, more).
techniques used are as close as possible to the ones used in the 18th and 19th centuries. No acrylic is used and, as a matter of fact, even the pigments used are in line with contemporary techniques (for example, “Prussia blue” did not appear until the 1850’s and is therefore not used on Napoleonic subjects). The colours, until 1870s or so, are never bright and tend to have an ochre-brown hue especially for redcoats and armour.
The resemblance is obviously not photographic (ever notice how original portraits of the same person always look a bit different?) and are not meant to be. I do not project slides on canvas because the final result always looks phony, something like Sergeant Pepper and the Lonely Hearts Club Band. I personally find it ghastly.

One of the main differences, however, is that you don’t have to pose for these paintings: all it takes is a photo and a bit of bibliographic reference.
Sorry, I don’t do pre 16th century or post World War One. It may not be “commercially correct”, but an oil portrait of a primipilus of Legio V Macedonica just wouldn’t look right (to me, at least). For WW I or later, a slightly unfocused, overexposed, sepia B/W photo yields a much better result. It’s considerably cheaper, too.

Want to know more?
 
 

       back to home