Mariah for Critique
 

Well, here goes

A lovely painting! Can you post a closeup of her face, or perhaps a higher resolution image? There seems to be some distortion or pixellation in the shape of the eye on our left. I'm not sure if that's the image file or the painting.

I wonder if a less harsh background color might be more flattering also, something softer in tone and with some modulation perhaps?

Glad you saw the pixellation, too, Michele. I was trying to make it resolve and wondered whether it was just my eyes - or my monitor.

This is indeed a lovely portrait, Stacey. Your rendering of the skin tones and the texture of the dress are excellent, and the hair is well done, too. I'd love to see a closeup of the face. Her parents will be thrilled, I'm sure. What a special present! I agree with Michele that a softer backdrop would be nice, but it didn't occur to me until she mentioned it.

Thanks for your comments Michele and Leslie. I'll have to go back and resize the picture from my tiff file - when I resized the jpeg it got fuzzy, hence the pixelation around that eye (it doesn't look like that in real life!). I'll post a new one tonight when I have access to my original files.

Now that you've pointed it out, I agree that the background does seem too harsh. I confess I was in a hurry and didn't want to give it much thought - I'll have to rethink what would look best :bewildere

Before you resize the picture you can try to 'soften' it first. Sometimes that works better.

Hi Stacey,

You might consider losing the edge of her hair on (our) upper left corner, into the dark background, then finding it again with a softer edge as it gets lighter. Also, I'm not sure if the position of her right index finger looks (?odd). Otherwise, a lovely portrait.

Best Wishes,

I really like this, it's very sweet.
A softer background would look nice, but I do not mind the black either.

Okay, here's a sharper (hopefully) closeup.

Her right index finger does look a bit strange. I'll have to take a closer look at that - it's in a awkward position to begin with, unfortunately!

I'll bet you the parents are not going to mind that finger one jot. Or the background, or anything else. If you're new to this, I think you should sit around and pat yourself on the back until your arm's sore, because it's lovely.

What are you aiming for? Personality, likeness, staying power, and a communicating gesture to last for years. Well, you're successful. Yippee!

If you're aiming to be competitive in a juried show, there are other things mentioned here that would impress jurors, and you might want to do them. But you said this was a relatively virgin run, and I would say move on before you wrack your brains trying to second guess a successful image.

I don't know if this is a popular opinion or not, but speaking as a self-taught/self-teaching painter, there are lessons in every successful painting, and you can't learn them all in just one go. I'm sure this was educational and I can't wait to see what comes next! Good job!

It is a beautiful painting overall. There are problems with the shapes in the eyes, though, that are apparent now that you've posted the clearer image. This is especially the case with the eye on our left.

Care needs to be taken that irises and pupils are perfectly round, and that the pupils are absolutely centered in the irises, which they are not.

Well, I finally sent this away and the parents really loved it, so I wanted to thank all of you who commented :)

Before I sent it, I fixed the weird shape of her irises (thanks Michele - I hadn't even noticed that!!) and lost the edge of her hair in the upper left. I actually ended up leaving the background dark because I thought it would go well in their house. Unfortunately, I was so excited to get it to them that I forgot to shoot any photos of it - oops!

Anyhow, thanks again for all of your help - I can't even begin to say what a valuable resource this forum is.

Stacey this is such a lovely piece that you absolutely must get top quality photos taken of it for your portfolio. Depending on where they live you should photograph it next time you are in their area.

If they live too far away you should try and arrange with them to take it to a professional photographer's studio (one who is experienced in lighting and photographing flat art) and have them shoot a 4x5 of it or get a high res digital scan of it, at your expense of course.

This one is too good to get away!

Michele,

Fortunately I'll be visiting them in January, so I'll make sure I take a set of high quality photos while I'm there. It's really the only painting I've done so far that I'm willing to use for my portfolio so I really do need to get photos of it!!

Congratulations Stacey on your first completed oil portrait!!

It really is beautiful, I can imagine how pleased the parents are, and tickled you must be - and eager to start on your next project! I have not attempted a portrait in oils, and am not near ready, (concentrating on graphite and charcoal) so I'm living a bit vicariously. I could only hope to be as successful as you have been with this beautiful first painting.

Can't wait to see what's next for you!!!!
Happy Holidays!
Pat Joyce
(used to be Meyers)

Hi Pat,

Thank you for the kind words. I should clarify that this isn't my first painted portrait - I've done four before this one for friends/family and I'm now embarassed to have them hanging in people's houses. They were done from others' photos with frontal flash, toothy grins, etc... I have learned so much just from reading the posts on this forum that I wish I could go steal them back from everyone! I used to work in graphite and charcoal until I took a beginning painting class and fell in love with the fact that I could cover up my mistakes :)

On a side note, I always grin when you sign your name - I also use my maiden name for anything art related, and it always confuses the people who only know me by my married name. They always look at the signatures on my paintings and ask who painted them!

Hi Stacey,
I have to ask if you have had any previous art training or if you are self taught. I am really tempted to sign up for an oil class in the spring, am still "shopping" but I am feeling more and more eager to get started in color. When I was in high school, MANY years ago I painted a few landscapes in oils. Never took a class, but loved the whole feel of oils and knew some day I would come back to them.

Are you working with someone's palette which you learned about? How extensive is it?

Take care -
Pat Joyce
Yeah, I confuse everyone with my name!!!

Hi Pat,

I started drawing in high school, but then I pretty much dropped art while I was in college. After I graduated a couple of years ago I took a local community college beginning oil painting class, which was only good for giving me basic info on what supplies are required - overall, the instructor didn

Stacey - just hoping you'll post the photos of the finished painting, once you get them. You've done a really nice job capturing her!

Congratulations!:D