A little bit of help
 

Beth,

A few notes: Your initial drawing had better color, but her left eye seemed too small, the light under her chin also on her left seemed too light. There were also problems in the drawing of the jaw. I liked the looseness of your handling and command of pastel tones.

Beth, I will spend a week to two weeks just on a head, problem areas for me, chins, foreheads and noses. You did a great job on her nose.

Get a proportion wheel, they are a great help when you get into trouble with the drawing. If your nose length is 2" long in your photo, it will tell you how how long to make it in the picture.

I found the best dark cool red is Schminke's Quinacridone violet, one of their new dunkeltones. It would work great as the base of her dress and the background.

Hope this helps,

Oh Sharon,

I swear I have come to believe there is an illness that is consuming my body. I think I will refer to it as Proportional Dyslexia!

I am attaching a jpeg of my collection of "tools" for double checking my work. In a discussion with Bill Whitaker one day, he told me I suffer from a very common normality (by this I mean very normal) which I believe he called

This might not be the right area for this image, but I thought it would make sense.

This is another study I am doing from this series, but it is oil on linen, 9x12. I have never worked this small before. I was really intimidated by my proportional challenges when the face is one inch tall. But I have had a wonderful time doing this piece.

Please note it is still in progress. ;)

This is a close up of the face. It feels like the features at this size are the power of suggestion, and the value/temperature really play an important role at this size.

It is easier to get the colors richer with oil vs. pastels.

What a lovely piece - great color and composition!

As far as suggestions: watch the alignment of the eyes and the symmetry of the mouth. (I know, it's tough to do that when the features are just a few millimeters long!)

Glad you did this one
 

I liked this pose too. Having worked tiny, you have my respect. (It's murder.) Nice job.

Jean

Thanks Michele and Jean,

I spent the day finishing up (I think) the small oil, so I'll post it in Unveilings.

Back to the pastel in the a.m.

One more thing: really play down those nostrils, in size and lightness.

I wanted to post my progress on the pastel here. (I have also posted an updated version of the oil with changes in Unveilings.)

Thank you to everyone for your input and also Tom and Peggy. This has become a very good learning tool for values.

Here is the close-up of the face.