Art

A portrait can be a crowning achievement for any family.

This is a Portrait of the Gulber Family of Las Vegas

A family portrait is about catching a moment in time.

This family will have this image for generations to come.

This painting was started with a rough draft drawing. Nathaniel Skousen states ‘The rough draft is the time to think about where you want to place everyone. Once you have considered your clients’ needs and preferrences, you start to think about where you want to place the different members of the family — symbolically.’

The oldest son is the one who watches out for all the younger siblings. So he is the ‘peak of the painting.’

Before the faces are painted on canvas the drawing has to be placed. Then the background is blocked in. Now the faces are ready to begin.

A large family painting of younger persons is impossible to start with a half an hour sketch with oil paints. Instead, that time is used to take pictures — many pictures. These pictures are used to create the painting. “I took digital pictures and used the best pictures of each individual. Digital is important to ‘read’ the cools and warms of the images to create the painting. Digital pictures are more correct on reading warm and cools. This is a must with skin-tones.”

There is something about an older daughters connection with the newest member of the family and her future motherhood.

“This baby boy was not born at the time of the first pictures, instead the eldest daughter held a doll. We later took pictures of the baby and added him in appropriately.”

A family portrait is not a simple endeavor. “All of the faces must be painted with one palette. In other words the paints to be used for the faces must be pooled up and applied while they are wet, so usually there is a one day window. Oil paints are notorious for taking time to dry, but some of the Brownish-Umbers dry in about 8 hours. This short time makes a handful of faces a challenge to paint in one short sitting.”

Once the faces have a layer dried, there is a need to go back and place more paint to further perfect the images. This occurs for two reasons: 1) the oil paint dry a lighter value, 2) when the artist returns and observes the painting it is easy to notice new changes. “Always give your eyes and mind a break from the painting.”