I’ve always admired the name and the animated logo I saw once of Paul Reiser’s Nuance Productions. You see the letters spelling “nuance” and then one of them is nudged, ever so slightly, into better alignment… Perfect.
That’s the stage — nudging towards perfection — that I’ve reached with my pastel portrait of Kasha. Or so I think, anyhow. Of course “perfect” is not attainable, but “a little better” is.
The main areas are blocked in with color, the masses are fairly well balanced, although the mass of K’s torso still recedes too much from the shoulders and haunch (he’s sitting on his brisket with his front feet folded in front of him, facing the light — the shading and coloring have to be readjusted there to bring it forward a little).
Now I’m trying to express what a big beautiful hunk of a cat he was (but not an overweight one!) when I took this photo, my personal favorite of him.
So what am I doing, if all that basic work is done? I’m trying to make sure the foreground pops out from the background without any outlining or artificial-looking means, of making sure the table he’s on looks like it’s anchored to the floor and he’s actually held on it by gravity and not wishful thinking (a matter of mass, light and shade, but isn’t the whole artwork that?); that the background is readable in some way but not intrusive (he’s shown against a dark chairback and some drapes, with a book on the table); that his fur looks furry and full, as it was, but without any vain or self-defeating attempt to show it as a collection of individual cat hairs; wondering how to get his marvelous whiskers to show (the photo shows his wonderful and large set, both moustache whiskers and eyebrows); and a myriad of other things.
Someone who knew K and saw the artwork would know at once, that’s Kasha, and possibly even recognize the photo I’ve been using as a desktop since I picked it out as the one I wanted to use for the portrait, but I, the ever over-critical, especially of my own work, see its deficiencies more than its positive work right now.
That will change, but I’m currently mopping up the minor deficiencies of light and shade and adding detail and texture in various ways.
It’s a little frustrating to realize that, whenever you try something, you could wreck the whole thing, and have to start over or move on to something else. Pastel is a particularly forgiving medium, although no medium should be overworked and even pastel will show it if you do it enough. I’ll figure this out, but it’s going to take a while of nudge, nudge, nudge. It’s these little nuances that breathe life into the work. Paul Reiser got that name and logo exactly right.
