I snapped this photo of Jim while he was playing. I liked the way the light from the windows created highlights and shadows on his face and his arms, and my position on the other side of the room from him was perfect for a great composition.
I showed it to The Husband, and asked him if he thought it would make a good portrait. He smiled ... which meant that I had hit on a great idea.
The photo needed a bit of cropping to clean up and focus the composition. I thought it made best sense as a square.
The Husband took over at this point, fiddling with the light and shadows in Photoshop, and this is what he came up with.
He has been working on the portrait for a couple of months, on evenings, weekends, and during breaks from work, and he finished it yesterday afternoon. The result is absolutely amazing!
Trust me, the actual painting looks SO much better in person than it does in this awful photo. It perfectly captures the mood of the moment.
While we were at Jim and Dan's last weekend, The Husband took Dan aside and showed him a photo of the portrait (Dan is also a very talented artist). Dan's reaction was instantly favorable, as was Jim's when he saw it. They offered to buy it right then, and have continued to be quite insistent about it during the time since, but I have had to disappoint them. This portrait is mine. I loved it from its inception as a dark photo, and I love it more now. I plan to add it to my collection that we display in our dining room, and it will forever be a memento of a valued friendship.
(If you are interested in seeing more of my dear husband's paintings, click HERE to visit the gallery on his web site.)