The Armour Archive

Hi,

My wife Maureen no longer fights, but I have a nice portait of her in her Ice Falcon armour. I've mentioned it before on the Archive and I figured it was time to show it.

In the actual photo the oil portrait is taken from, Maureen is covered in sweat, her hair is blond (original color), her nails are chipped and she's relaxing watching the Bloodguard fighters practice. Our mini-van is in the background. Her gorget is half off, and almost fallen off.

The painter in Camp Red Cloud, South Korea, had the small photograph to work with. I explained her hair was red now, and could he fix that. He agreed. When I saw the painting, he had fixed up her nails, had a gleem on her wedding ring, added makeup (looks like she went 10 rounds with a beutician instead of Duke Andre), edited away the mini van and even had the background have a "smoky" look, as if she were standing upon a buring battlefield looking at her handywork.

The painting cost $100. The best $100 I've ever spent. If I can ever return to Korea, I will do so with $1K for portrait paintings of the family. I've got one portrait of my daughter, another of my son, and one of the family, in garb. On that day a hair stylist RUINED Maureen's hair (took two hours to completely mess it up...) yet the portait looks quite good! Many things can be corrected it seems.

With respect,

-Aaron

Interesting.

Is that an actual painting or a computer composition?

Actual oil painting. I watched the initial pencil sketch & final touch up. The paint was still wet when I got it. Maureen told me it was a waste of money but hung it proudly in the living room.

Sadly I never saw that exact painter again. The other three paintings were done by a painter of lesser skill at Camp Humphreys. They are still great paintings IMO but not the same quality of the first.

I have to ask...is her gorget on sideways? (cooling down maybe?)

The gorget is on half off because she was resting in between bouts.

Aaron wrote:The gorget is on half off because she was resting in between bouts.

The piece seems to have been painted in an abstract fashion. Is that correct?

Aaron wrote:The gorget is on half off because she was resting in between bouts.

that is what I figured!

Was there a particular reason why the artist kept the spectacles?

Donal Mac Ruiseart wrote:Was there a particular reason why the artist kept the spectacles?

She was wearing them in the photo I gave him. The artist spoke some English and my Korean is good for ordering food in a restaurant. I just handed him the $100, mentioned that the hair was red and he produced the painting three days later.

Besides, it makes it look like she's a mix of Red Sonja and a Naughty Librarian IMO.

What does "abstract" mean in regards to art? I was looking up at the painting when I took the picture, so the arm looks larger than it should.

-Aaron

I think the 'abstract' comment comes from the odd perspective. You took the photo from relatively close so objects even slightly in the foreground are magnified and those even slightly distant are shrunken. Paintings are frequently done from close range so the artist can see the detail but a good artist often compensates for range and puts the subject at a distance as if they were standing just past the wall in room that the picture will hang in.

Net result in this picture is her right pauldron and left hand are disproportionate to her face. It's probably an exact proportional representation of the picture but it's not what we would expect to see if we were at the fighter practice with her.

For the price you paid it's a very nice painting and Maureen is a very beautiful woman and you should be happy to have her painting on the wall.

Enjoy,
Sean

Pretty much what Sean Powell said. Some artists will work in a more abstract "conceptual" style. Enlarging and shrinking certain aspects of the subject matter in order of "importance. Ie, the hand with the wedding ring is larger than porportionally right. Possibly signifying the "importance" of marriage. The head and face seems to be done in a very photo realistic manner which may suggest that is what the artist wants you to focus on, since it seems to have the most detail.

The right shoulder and forearm seem disporportionally large when compared to the head. Same with the Gorget, it seems larger than it should. This could all be due to the angle in which you shot the photo. Or, it could just the style of the artist. There is nothing specifically wrong with it. I was just making an "artistic" observance about the painters style.