Each painting has so many variables. Pose, lighting, background, patterns on clothing, all of these things play a part. I do have ballpark figures I use to estimate if I can complete a particular painting within a requested timeframe, but I purposely keep these loose. The painting process can include any number of surprises.
Most of the very realistic work I do takes weeks and months to complete as I work in layers and so paint needs to dry before I can proceed. And surprisingly, I have found that a smaller canvas is not necessarily easier or faster to produce.
Typically it takes me between 2 and 6 months to complete a portrait, and I know when a portrait is complete not by the number of hours I've put into it, but by some internal signal that says, "That's it! Put the paintbrush down and walk away!"
And in any art museum, portraits are everywhere: in every style, color, and size, from every country and created by every type of artist.
In a portrait's brushstrokes we find a path connecting us to another human on a timeless level.
Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, van Gogh and Rembrandt's many self-portraits, these are just a few of the well-known portraits that have come down to us through the ages. Their popularity is testimony to the power and value of capturing personality, character, and aspect, on canvas.
Oil paint captures the living qualities of the human face and body like no other medium. Skillfully handled, the portrait transcends technique and draws the viewer in, and a single artist creates a treasure for us all.