The History of the Kingdom of The West
Scrolls

The Portrait

Photo and Contribution
by Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

"Rose's head and hands have been rendered. The flesh tone (standard Caucasian) is a mixture of a lot of white with a small amount of orange and a dab of burnt umber. See details on Johann von Drachenfels Laurel scroll for more about the joys of portraiture. Rose's face is a challenge because she was extremely solemn in the pictures I had, and the photos were so small that I couldn't figure out what color her eyes were. There's nothing worse than paintus interruptus -- I email Hirsch "What color are Rose's eyes? I need to know right now!" Hirsch emails back that he is not in the habit of looking into Rose's eyes, as that sort of thing can get one in trouble, and he really can't remember what color her eyes are. Snarling with frustration, I next email Rose's husband, Juan. Luckily for me, Juan has often looked soulfully into his wife's eyes (or so I presume) and he is able to supply the answer immediately light brown. The work continues and at this point I'm ready to leave it for a time. The mouth has the right shape, although I'm not satisfied with the hair color. It doesn't look quite right and the eyebrows may be too dark. However, I've found that when the surroundings for a figure are painted in, the color may undergo a shift (influenced by the color around it) and so can the contrast -- what looked too dark may now look too light, or vice versa. The application of additional color will almost certainly change things (and the changes were often quite dramatic with this particular painting) so it's best to leave it alone until the painting is more advanced. The paint was left on the palette as it's often difficult to match a flesh tone later -- as a mixture of three (or more) colors, getting the exact same mixture later on can be too adventuresome and tedious for words." -- Tatiana Nikolaevna Tumanova

The West Kingdom History Website was created by and is maintained by Hirsch von Henford (mka Ken Mayer).