Lt. Crisci, fireman
 

I am posting the beginnings of my oil portrait of Lt. John Crisci. It is a 24" x 20". I have only a black and white reference thus far. I am awaiting possibly a colored one but do not wish to press his widow too far. She said he has olive colored skin and green eyes. My first post is with reference and the second one will be a bit close up.

The scan made his skin tone look very yellow and it is not quite that yellow, although I am in need of color. :? Right? Actually, I feel fairly good about it, but a critique from any of you would be appreciated. The skin on his neck is not nearly finished. Nor all the detail in his eyes. I inquired about adding any type of flag in background, etc. and his wife, Rae, stated that she preferred it to be quite plain.

Thanks for any input as I really want this to be a good one that she and their 3 sons will love.

And now # 2 close up Lt. Crisci

I decided to post just one more as it is the full view and I wanted to know if I had made a big mistake in including his arm patch so close to the viewer? I felt it was very important but hoped it did not take away from his face. It is not finished and assume that I will tone it down even more. Any suggestions? :bewildere

:) :) PS !!!!

What a great start! You have already captured an excellent likeness!

I know you are not finished but here are my suggestions based on what you've done so far:

1) His left eyelid seems a little too light in value.

2) The shadow area on the left side of his neck seems to go all the way to the back of the neck and under the ear.

3) On your painting, it seems like the corner of his right shoulder is lined up with the tip of the hat. Because the photo is so small it's hard to be sure but I think that the shoulder corner is actually more towards the left of your canvas (did I express that properly?. In other words, his shoulders seem a little narrow.

As for the badge I think it looks fine. When you have added color to the rest of the painting it probably won't look so bright.

Nice job!

Hi Patt,

My feeling is that the pupil of the right-eye (for us right) is a bit too close to the nose.

I miss certain shadows in the painting which I see in the source-photograph, like on the right side of the nose under, in the neck, and above the right-eye.

Maybe scanning the source-photograph and posting it also will help us to make better comments, just a suggestion.

Greetings,
Peter

Peter,

Yes I think I see what you mean. I appreciate your input and I will send my photo soon. I am preparing for visitors to my studio tomorrow as a combined effort from our town to do Studio Tours of local artists and I am not prepared yet. Pulling those interested to our individual studios that are in more rural areas and not necessarially in town. So I will get back to this soon. Don't give up on me.

Denise,

Thanks too and again, I do see that. I will proceed to try and correct some and paint more on it. BTW, I am afraid that my trip to Reston is probably off now. Tell more later.

Will return ASAP. :)

Hi Patt,

Wow, what a challenge to produce a color portrait without any color reference, live or reproduction. Looks good so far, though. Here are just a few notes that I think will contribute to likeness:

Check both the thickness and width of the eyebrows. Especially on our left, the eyebrow seems a bit thick and seems to extend too far to the left.

I'd go more with the shadow cast by the bill of the hat, diagonally across the brow and putting more of the eye on our right in shadow. All that light on the upper lid on our right is making the eye bulge out and appear "vertically oblong", for want of a better term.

In the photo, the moustache isn't perpendicular to the vertical center of the face, but is higher on our left. I think that's very characterizing of the mouth area.

I think the moustache on our left side is fuller as it approaches the far left, rather than coming so rapidly to a "waxed" point.

I'd keep the shadow side of the face more fully in shadow values, and not break up that area quite as much with light spots, with the exception of the light defining the dimple on our right, above the outside end of the moustache, a light which right now isn't in your painting.

I'll quit there because I'm on a dodgy connection in Beijing and I think I'm about to get timed out. (Can you hear people all over the Forum shouting, "How can WE get that software?")

Cheers

In the Pink
 

Great likeness!

The skin tones come through very yellow on my monitor. I feel the need for some warm & cool reds.

Wonderful handling of the eyes.

:) Jeanine, thank you for your comments and the reason for no skin tones are because those shown are only the beginnings of my oil. What you are seeing is some color but mostly my underpainting; I have much more to go.

And Peter, as to your post about sending you the reference photo, I am just doing that now. As I said, it is in black and white only. My original scan seemed quite fuzzy but I am sending it and hoping it is corrected. If not then I will send you another one.

Oh in my hurry to post, I had forgotten my question. I really regret somewhat about leaving the arm patch so "up front" and in your face. I felt the need to have it there due to the fact he is a fireman, etc so I really wanted it there and now---well, now it is there. I personally feel that I need to wrap it around his sleeve more and dull the colors quite a bit to push it back.

If any of you have suggestions as to how I can handle this now. If I actually should take it out completely, I have taken something out like that by lightly sanding with 400 or 600 grit sandpaper. As a matter of fact I understand some do this in between their dried painting process to eliminate the "fuzzy" look that oil can get from every day air fuzzies.

Any comments are greatly appreciated as I am to finish it very soon.

Greatly appreciated,
Patt

This is great! I was wondering is there a way to get a Fireman to do. I have really wanted to do one.

Was just curious!

Mark

Patt

One "last final" note: the shadow under his bottom lip is, I think, too large and too dark. It's suggesting a facial structure that is much less round in that area than I see in the photo.

Hi Patt,

I have attached two pictures, one is an image in which I have changed something in your source-photo. Maybe the original photograph shows these details already but it can go lost in the scan, otherwise this is a way to get more out of certain photographs. I used paint shop pro and used the 'histogram adjustment' to make certain tonal values in the photograph more visible. Nowadays the quality of digital photo-printing-services is very good, one could improve source-photographs this way.

I used the photograph of your painting to show certain problem-areas. I moved the right-eye (for us right) a bit more to the right. (You can see in the vertical white lines there how much it actually moved. He looked a bit cross-eyed to me. The form of the moustache on the left wasn't right I think, See the red line. I missed a bit of hair under his ear. The eye-brow on the left and the shadow of the hat needs some attention I think. Also, the form of skin under his right-eye, as I indicated on your work.

Greetings,
Peter

second attachment...

Okay, one more last final note (seeing Peter's close-ups reminded me of this one): At the base of the nose, the "wing" on our right side bottoms out much lower than the one on our left. That's caused in part by the omission of that form-defining shadow cast by the nose. I'd darken the part of the upper lip on our right, between the moustache and the nose.