Help please, cropping and edges
 

I have two photographs that I am happy with of a 3 year old girl. This will be my first commission. I had each 5"x7" blown up and lightened so I could see some of the detail in the shadows. Next time I'll use the big white board I brought along, though when I held it up to her face for some reflected light it looked like (to my eyes) that ALL the shadows on her face disappeared.

I would very much like to use these photos but I would like some help with where to crop them. I think I will do just a dark solid background, or almost solid. I also would like this to be a somewhat large portrait, but don't want to get a 'giant head' in the portrait. Seems I read somewhere that heads shouldn't be more than lifesize, nor should they be 'monkey heads' which I think means 7/8 or 3/4 of lifesize? I would like to make this portrait larger than 18"x24".

But, probably my biggest concern is how I am going to deal with that white dress against a dark background in the photo where she's looking at the camera. I don't want to have a line down the middle of the painting where the dark is separated from the light dress, though my gut tells me there is something pleasing about this vertical line if treated correctly.

I included the 2 smaller photos because they have nice color, when the photos were enlarged to 10"x15", some of the color washed out.

Thank you all, I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say.

Joan

Here is photo one:
 

Here is a digital photo of the 10"x15" of the first photo:

Photo 2
 

Here is another digital photo of the 10"x15" photograph. This is a second pose.

Two 5x7's for color
 

Finally, here are the two 5"x7" photos that captured this little girls coloring.

joan,

If you make your portrait something close to life size, I chose an 8" head, it will come out to close to 26" vertical. This would leave about 2.25" above the head.

In the other photo her pose doesn't appear to be as tall.

Cropping
 

Mike,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. Is this how you would crop this photo for the portrait? I am concerned there might be too much 'empty space' on the left side of the girl as we are looking at the portrait. I know I don't want to crowd her against the edge since she is facing that direction, but what do you think?

Joan

Hi Joan,

She's a beautiful little girl.

As for composition, the most useful approach might be to do several very small pencil "thumbnail" sketches. They show you pretty quickly what is and isn't pleasing to your eye.

If you have a photo-editing program, like Photoshop, you can use it to tame that background. I've attached an image as an example.

I like the image Mike altered for the same reasons he stated, however, the thumbnail shows me that you're going to have a potential problem area in the anatomy of the neck. You want to beware that the head doesn't look "cut and pasted" on.

I'd also allow for more eyeroom on the right-hand side of the image; one useful "guideline" is to center the eye you're going to use as your center of interest horizontally.

I've attached a black and white copy of your image to illustrate the other thing you may have to be wary of: the lights have all been flattened to the same values.

One thing that would help immensely would be if you could sit her in front of a video and do a head/shoulders charcoal study or head/shoulders oil sketch. You could note critical information like values, color and edges.

I hope this is helpful; she's such a cutie - and I would love to paint her myself! I love the dress you've chosen. I've turned into a monster when I shop with my nieces; all I want to do is accessorize and paint them! They're VERY spoiled at the holidays.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

Joan,

Speaking about the photo of the girl in the more upright pose, the space in front of her doesn't bother me personally, if you include the full figure. In my opinion, when you begin to reduce this space you will also want to come up from the bottom as I indicate with the cropped image below.

If you reduce to the cropped image you will have a hard time makeing this painting as big as you indicate you would like.

I've never been able to create a perfect reference. I like your approach with these simple uncomplicated compositions. Your challenge will be to pull some life from the extremes of dark and light.

P. S. I think what you have here is a very photogenic child. I see in her expression that she has an understanding of what you are trying to do. She is a gift to a portrait artist.

Thank you!
 

Thank you Mike and Mari,

Your posts are just the type of things I was looking for. Yes, it will be a challenge to make her look like she's not 'pasted on'.

I spotted this little girl at one of my son's cub scout meetings and I approached the mom. I told her I was trying to build a portfolio and asked if I could photograph her child. I went over to their home last week and I have never taken great photos like these. I have been struggling with giving up other part time activities for portraiture and I believe it was divine intervention that helped me take these photos. What an amazing little girl and pose, it's practically all laid out in front of me now.

This little girl was a perfect model. Her mother is a very strict attorney who was able to come home for lunch to be present at the photo shoot. This little girl follows instructions like a robot! And she picked out her favorite dress, my only request was that it wasn't a print. Her mother stayed in the room until she realized she was a distraction, then left the room. Though the mom still peeked around the doorway every few minutes! After the photo shoot I stayed and colored in a coloring book with the little girl while the nanny fixed lunch. The little girl wanted to show me what she can do with crayons. She's going to draw me a picture in exchange for the portrait when I'm finished.

Mom had already told me that if she and her husband like the portrait, they would like to buy it. I guess that's one way to get (potential) commisions, hang out where kids go and approach their parents.

Back to the photo, since she's wearing a sleeveless dress I feel like I have to include the entire arm so it won't be cut off. Hence the larger format portrait, which I would love to attempt anyway.

I am still concerned about the pasted on look. Perhaps the background should be lighter around the figure, I've seen that on some of the portraits I've studied in books and on this forum.

Please, keep the comments coming, I'm learning so much.

Thank you,
Joan

Joan,

The pasted on look has more to do with execution than composition. Good luck

Here are my suggestions.

I rotated the picture so that the eyes are parallel to the horizontal edge of the canvas. I think that this may make for a more interesting positioning on the canvas and eliminate the light/shadow division thet would go right down the center of the painting.

Have your background dark, simple and use a slight variation of value as an opportunity to lose and find edges of the face and figure.

A silhouette of a bow or ribbons on the back of the dress would be a good compositional device to make the negative space more dynamic. It would be a good opportunity to introduce a hint of another color plus maybe put a little touch of light on the dark side of the figure.

You can also make the space in front of the figure more interesting if you can paint her holding flowers. Oftentimes a touch of something darkish on the light side of the figure can enhance the overall look.

Leave plenty of "head room" in your painted portrait. It is only in photos that you can successfully get away with a close cropped figure.

What's not to like here! I wish this little girl lived near me, maybe I could get an early flight out. Karen, what a gift to Joan.

Joan,

Value is not arbitrary. Value is a tool you use to create a powerful composition. Once you start thinking like this, painting becomes even more fascinating! I think you might find this thread interesting; it's Peggy Baumgaertner's lecture on massing in 3-values.

You've got a lot of potential with this reference. I like the manipulations everyone has shown. I'd still like to see more details in the light. It's a common error to have the photo push the values too far in each direction: you can't see into the darks and the lights are washed out to form-flattening white.

Beautiful image
 

Joan, If you choose not to paint this, will you e-mail me the image? I'd love to have such a wonderful reference!

Jean

See a continuing discussion with Joan's compositional sketch here:

Karin, now we SEE where those beautiful glazed images come from in your work!

Jean I do agree with the above, it works very nice with a plain backgound. She is lovely! Good job on the photo. :thumbsup:

Thank you everyone!
 

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful comments. I had been away from my computer for the weekend and when I got back, I was so pleased to see comments and answers to my questions!

I love the idea of breaking up the negative space our right to make that dark space more interesting (with a bow), and I'll see if I can put in some flowers. I'll make sure the light source is coming from the same direction on the flowers.

I wasn't so sure about tilting her to make her eyes the same height but the more I look at how you tilted the photo Karin, the more I like that. Thank you for that suggestion!

Mike, regarding the background, since I'm fairly new at portrait paining, my plan is to keep the background simple! Painting the subject is tough enough for me.

Thank you again everyone for taking an interest in this project. I am still in that "I'm scared to start this one because I don't know if I can do it" phase. But I'll get over it, eventually, and begin painting.

Joan