This extremely popular picture was a joy to recreate, although some of its best features are lost to the camera's eye. The characters were painted with a true-metalic based gold paint which was applied in several layers to give the geometric patterns of their clothes a real texture you can feel coming off of the canvas. The background is a combination of thick oil, copper shavings, and copper dust, which dried into a speckled leather-like surface. The characters were a challenge for me as I generally shy away from painting any faces, hands, or feet, however blending the oils to create the subtle shades helped me learn how to bring the human form to life.
I was able to really feel this painting as I was doing it because it was for a woman I know and love... all I had to do was picture lovers in an embrace and it seemed to flow naturally onto the canvas. |
