Mick!

A month ago I wrote about my first commission in a post titled "Mick's Dogs".  There is more to the story!  When I delivered the watercolor of Mick's three dogs to him he was thrilled.  The piece was a gift for his wife.  As we chatted at the coffee shop, which I painted in my July 5th post "Plein Air Painting", Mick said he had another project for me.  I was anxious to hear what it was since the dog portrait went well.  Mick wanted a portrait of himself.  Not a current portrait, but one of himself when he was in the Irish Army many years ago.  He didn't really have a photo for reference.  He emailed a YouTube video titled Royal Ulster Constabulary - A Tribute and said he wanted me to use the uniform and weapon shown at a certain minute mark in the video.  Mick also sent a few old photos of himself (which weren't quite that old) so I could insert his face on the proper uniform.  I was nervous since I hadn't done a personal portrait and this was going to be difficult.  I put it off.  I had a workshop coming up with Alvaro Castagnet and thought maybe I would learn some secret formula from him to help with this commission.  I put it off longer since I had another workshop coming up where I surly would learn something to give me confidence to try the portrait.  Neither workshop was about portrait painting.  I finally plunged in after Mick asked several times about it.  It took a couple weeks to finish.  I painted smallish areas, let them dry, and came back with more color and value while trying to have some of my own style show.  I was happy with it finally and hoped it looked like a much younger Mick and that the weapon was correct.  Thankfully Mick was pleased and said it did look like him and the weapon was right.  Great news!