Awaiting -
 

This is 24 x 36", oil

I'm ready for a critique and any suggestions.

I need to figure out what I am going to do with that post I added. It may stay, it may not. Maybe it could be terra cotta colored similiar to her dark skin tones. There are ridges in her face I need to scrape off and re-paint.

Any suggestions/digital manipulations welcomed.

oops.

Kim,

I don

Steven,

Thanks for your comments. The hand is a problem I agree. My husband has renamed this painting "the claw." I'm not quite sure how to fix that - I should have paid more attention to that while posing her. I may have her pose again and try to change it to be more pleasing.

As for the belly, your in good company - this was discussed under a reference photo critique. I chose to go ahead and show it for various reasons. For me it is the reason for the painting. It's not a commission or for my portfolio necessarily - just because I wanted to. I agree that it is rather 'startling' the way it pokes out. I was going to have her pose again with it covered, but she is due any day and has been not well the last couple of weeks. This is a learning painting as well. This is my first portrait since joining the forum and reading all the great tips. Plus I just got Chris Saper's book. I'm trying to stretch myself.

The ball and the claw
 

Kim,

Love it! I was hoping you were working on this because I was really looking forward to it. I think you did a great job so far.

One of the reasons the hand looks clawlike is that you've rendered the muscle between the thumb and the carpal area as an egg shape. I'm sure on the reference it is also an egg, but it's interfering with your opportunity to model the knuckles more finely. You may want to make it a more concave shape. Also, folding the index finger in to vary the shape might be pleasant. This extreme foreshortening is definitely a challenge. You could always have her grasp the fabric then turn her wrist so that

I like the background the way you have it, though the chroma might be intense on the leaves. But the way you've got the light breaking the contours on the leaves shows a rear light source and implies light motion... It's totally effective for me as a viewer. I'm not the most sophisticated viewer, though, so I'll just let it go at that.

The belly is great! I wasn't drawn to it right away - I think the lightness and shape of her hair and head drew me there first, then on downwards. I know we talked about this before, and I still say if you're going to make a statement, go ahead and make it. I have an affinity for bellies, having sported one for about 4 years off and on, and I bet many people will feel the same way. On the other hand, there are a lot of traditions in figural art that you're defying, (consciously, I know), and yet somehow I get the impression you're certainly not going to crumple at a few withering stares.

You should get this done as a giclee and offer it to every OB in a tri-county area.

Kim, Sorry to have missed the extensive comments in the Resource Photo area. (I'm having trouble keeping up with the dailies, much less the archives.) Anyway, it does seem as though the issues I raised have already been pretty much hashed out.

I'm very happy to see folks paint what they want to, by the way -- I have lots of studio figure work that I couldn't post here, and I paint lots of things besides portraits -- and I trust that you understand I wasn't saying you couldn't do this picture this way if you wanted to.

Just to clarify, it isn't the "pregnant woman" aspect that I meant to speak to, but the compositional pull of a large, high-contrast area down in the corner of the painting, drawing attention away from some otherwise very interesting and well-rendered parts of the picture, most notably her facial structure, nice skin tones, and hair, as well as some of the drapery dynamics in the fabric. The belly just isn't as interesting to me, and yet it's doing most of the compositional shouting (and kicking, I would imagine.)

My wife looked at this earlier today and said, "Well, that must have been the most important part for the artist." Interestingly, she was assuming that the artist must be male. The implications of that assumption probably go too far beyond this discussion, at least tonight.

Kim,

I think you've done a good job on her face and hair. The background to me seems to create too much interest with to much intensity.

My main complaint would be in the area of edges. I think the edges could stand to be softened, particularly where her skin meets the fabric.

I think if you look closely at your reference you will be able to make that hand serve. Reducing the sharp edges will help the hand as well.

Seems like you're pretty well set on the bold belly. It's interesting to me (and I haven't gone back to check every post) that the belly seems to be going pro female con male. That seems interesting to me.

I was going to repost my covered belly version mostly for aggravation, but decided against it. I think I'm growing as a person.

Lisa,

Thanks for the great comments! I love the idea of the OB doctors. Wouldn't that be funny?

Steven,

I understood completely about your comment with the belly. I found this the most pleasing pose, but I was sorry the light was so strong on her belly. Composition and prior planning are areas I need a lot of work on.

By the way, where is your work to be seen here? I havent seen any yet.

Mike,

I will work on edges, this will be tricky for me. You can feel free to re-post the belly-covered pose. Since I know you are trying to be aggravating I won't hurt you. ;)

I have a theory about the female/male aspect of the belly showing. Woman want to be beautiful at all times, and especially when they are pregnant and feeling fat. It's also a very emotional and loving time. We stare in amazement at our belly when it is growing. I even did a series of nude sketches of myself every 2 weeks when I was pregnant with my first one. For most of us though, that "glow" is really pregnancy acne, our rears get as big as our belly and the ankles bigger. This girl wasn't half this pretty before she was pregnant, she is more sensous looking now. She is beautiful pregnant like we all would like to be. For woman, seeing a pregnant woman done beautiful, including the belly that we are so fascinated with is a compliment to all of us. We can be attractive even when carrying 25 extra pounds around the middle. Maybe for men it's not the same. How many husband's really find their wives more beautiful when she is throwing up every morning? Maybe that big belly is a turn-off for some. I don't know - just a theory. Then again, maybe the men are thinking "Dang, another mouth to feed on the way!"

I messed around in Adobe, with what little I know how to do and changed the color of the post, thinking maybe it would look like a stucco doorway opening? Let me know what you think. I am usually at a loss for backgrounds.

Thanks for the reminder that I have to work on a website eventually, once I get settled (and find some new studio space to rent).

Anyway, there are actually a number of drawings, pastels, and oils floating around the Forum. They're scattered -- posted to a number of different purposes -- so I'll try to round up some URL's and send them to you.

Cheers

Just my two cents on the "claw". Seems you've overly-defined the fingers. As they recede, they should probably also fade a bit and the edges could become diffuse. I have a 19th century portrait in my dining room. The woman's hands are the least defined features on the figure. A few brush strokes, and they're done.

Lisa's comments hit the nail on the head as well, but de-emphasize the fingers and they won't be as problematic.

Steven,

Thank you for the url's. I like your work, very impressive!

Jeff,

Thank you - good idea on the fingers.

Finished - for now
 

I posted this in Unveilings because I am done with it for now. There are still things I am unhappy with, but even with all the good advice I don't yet have the ability to fix it yet. I am posting it here as well so anyone can feel free to critique. I should have done that instead.

The reason I am soliciting critiques is because even though I may not be able to fix the problems now, I may be able to in the future. Besides, I want to see how others read this in case I am missing anything.

It has been a disappointment for me. I can't clearly explain why. It is just not what I was going for. I loathe to admit that maybe the belly was a mistake. I WANTED that belly so badly.

One good thing, this thing has drawn people to my studio in droves. It's a small town and people talk....it's all been positive so far.

Here is how I have left it for now.

By the way, that line of the post is not crooked on the painting - just my bad photography.

Dear Kim,

I thought I would make a few observations, mainly dealing with your focal point. I am not sure what you were wanting to achieve, but I think that this painting is more a portrait of a tummy than of a pregnant woman, and I think has happened for several very specific reasons.

Elements that work to create a focal point include strong contrast, strong color, and sharp edges. All three are more strongly at play with the outside edge of the belly, much more so than the face. The light is also stronger on the belly than the face which further underscores the tummy as the focal point.

The strong vertical post is an element that diminshes the composition, in my opinion. It actually acts as an arrow, literally pointing the viewer toward the tummy as focal point.

Fortunately, all of these things would be easy to modify if you chose to do so. You have done a good job with the fabric and figure, and I think that the background foliage is a successful choice. I think that that the mood (especially as I cover the tummy and post) is also very successfully conveyed.

Last, you might want to check your values in the reflected light on the top of the shoulder and the right edges of the arm and back.

Chris,

Thank you for your critique. When I can stand to look at her again I will get rid of the post asap. I was wondering originally if that was just too much background with the foliage, that's why I put that darn thing in there. (Where were you when I started? Most likely working on your own paintings I suppose.) ;)

I will soften the edges of the belly and look at those values you mentioned. This is just what I needed. My only question is the belly - I do want to leave it and I do want to soften it, but I guess I am afraid of lowering the value too much and having it not look realistic for the light on the rest of her body. I will try it anyway. Thank you again!

Kim, nature (painting from life) takes care of many things. You don't have to paint the whole from life either. You can make observations of parts (cloth and background say). If you think photo, f5.6 will give you the soft background, but your eyes can do that too-and better. If you look at stuff like the background from life you see shapes and colors that a camera won't give you and it's very liberating.N. Fechin below;

Tim, thanks for posting the Fechin, it's lovely.

Chris, I disagree with you on the aspect of psychological focus here. When you expose the tummy you are essentially creating a painting of a "two-person relationship" instead of a traditional "it-all-leads-to-a-single-face" portrait. It's a conceptual (pun?) issue. I think it's appropriate to give that tummy visual weight.

Having said that, though, I don't like the vertical stripe, either. I think verticals are really strong compositional tools and I almost always want to see them fuzzed out, lightened, darkened, shortened, narrowed, or taken out altogether.

Again, this is one of my favorite topics, so excuse my attraction to trivia. I think the value of the tummy might be too dark and too warm. In pregnancy, the tummy is cooler than usual, and probably doesn't see the sun too much either. A very pregnant woman of caucasian descent has a high likelihood that her skin becomes more translucent, and blood flow increases. So, there should be a good deal of veinous blood cooling the value of the surface of her belly and chest. In addition, the skin is probably very taut, and more shiny. But these things are out of our normal range of portraiture experiences, so how would one represent that? I keep picturing Bougeureau's reclining woman on the sand, the one with the giant wave that's about to crash down her. She has beautiful bluish skin tones.

Maybe Tim's on the money - painting from life would have been great, but the pose would have to have been seated, and Kim, you'd have to paint really fast!

Thank you all for this feedback. This has helped greatly - especially considering I never wanted to look at her again and now I am eager to get to the studio tomorrow and work on it.

Tim, that painting is great and I am sure you are right. I am going to get that fabric on my back porch and whatever else from her original photo and lug the painting home & just look.

Lisa,

I agree, the tummy is too warm. The earlier phase of the painting I posted was closer to reality - this one has gone back & forth several times. I liked the tummy on my earlier version better.

Here is what I did today to the paintings. Feel free to comment.

I had an interesting thing happen today I wanted to share - about this painting.

I've had at least 20 women and a few men come in and ohhh and ahhh over how beautiful this is. Today the local bank Vice President came in. He is looking into investing in framing equipment and putting it in my studio.

So he is standing there by this one on the easel (very conservative Baptist), and his eyes keep looking then quickly looking away. Then he finally points at it without looking and says "This is a very unusual portrait." I started laughing and asked if it made him uncomfortable.

He finally just looked at it for a few minutes without speaking. He asked if it was requested and few other questions and then decided it was beautiful. Then he proceeded to speak to me about a portrait commission for the Bank owner who happens to be one of Texas' past Governor's.

If I had known he was even thinking about that, I would not have had that portrait out, I know how conservative he is.

I retook my photos of the painting after Cynthia pointed out that it looked so red. This time I took the computer to the studio to compare the painting with the photo on my screen. I think this it truer to the actual painting.

Does the bank owner have a big belly? Maybe that's why the VP asked you to do the commission of him, after seeing this one! Just joking, of course. I think perhaps this portrait was striking enough to stop the VP in his tracks and your questions got him to really think about it. This is a beautiful painting and perhaps you got the commission because of this portrait, not in spite of it.

I really like what you did with the background, by the way. The whole thing has an archetypal, symbolic Rousseau feeling now.

Thanks Michele!

I think it's done now. I appreciate all the help provided by everyone. I look forward to posting a very dramatic post someday like yours - what I did before and after. Course since I started with scary "Jake" that should be easy.

My husband kept telling me to take the post out. I can't say how much I HATE it when he is right.

I was thinking of posing the ex-governor wrapped in a pretty cloth with his belly exposed.....or perhaps a little leg poking out.