Juiliana in oils!
 

OK... well am finally getting around to trying a portrait in oils!

This 'underpainting' is basically to get used to the paints and how they handle and to get an initial likeness. I plan to paint over it with color once am happy with the likeness (and once it dries for several days, I guess).

I'm finding the oils handle very differently than the acrylics -- everything moves and I keep putting my hand :o in the paint!! But the painting does seem to go a whole lot quicker. :)

I know I've got to:
- lighten some of the shadows in her mouth and on her left cheek
- soften the hairline (though I may wait for color phase to do that)
- maybe tweak the shape of her eyes a bit?
- oh and adjust the wing of her nose. . .

So have at it -- advice/critique/suggestions welcome!

Oil on Canvas
12" x 9"

reference photo:

Terri,

Glad to see you're trying oils - I'll be excited to see how this one turns out, since I'm a big fan of your acrylics. :) Keep us posted on your progress, and how you're liking the oils vs. acrylic.

I like what you've got so far. The one thing that popped out at me was that the shadows in the mouth could use some lightening, but you already mentioned that so I guess I didn't even need to!

Hi Stacey -- Thanks!

I was planning to wait a few days (for the underpainting to dry) before laying on some color... but couldn't help myself and painted for a few hours this afternoon. So now I think the shadow on her near cheek has been lost a bit too much, that her lower lip is too bowed and that the whole face needs to be blended more evenly...
am loving the oils though!

This is very charming.

Just a tip to help you avoid "getting your hand in the paint" - buy yourself a mahlstick. It will take some getting used to but it's a great tool.

Michele - Thanks for the tip! -- and you were so right about switching to oil, much easier/faster to work with and more satisfying.

So, this is getting close, I think. I'll probably tone down the blue in the background a bit, and the shirt obviously needs a little attention. Anything jump out at anyone?

Terri,

I like this a lot. A couple of observations: On her right cheek, I would soften slightly the transition between light and shadow pretty much all around the perimeter. I would also knock off the sharp point at the bottom. Also take a look at her bottom lip on our right, as it makes the turn on the underside, I think you will see that it is slightly fuller than need be.

Oil paint rules.

Mike - Thanks! Have adjusted both the cheek and the lower lip.

Also adjusted the shadows on her forehead.

Terri, congratulations on a very successful switch in media - I love the way you're approaching this! It's just beautiful, and the softness of the oils enhances your natural expressiveness. Your painterly style comes through with flying colors.

On to the picture at hand - there's something about the painting that makes the child look a little older and doesn't quite capture all of the sweetness and shyness that comes out in the photo. I opened up both your latest version of the painting and the reference photo side by side and can look at them simultaneously. (Didn't know I could do that!) It makes comparisons a lot easier. I think the main difference is in her left (our right) eyebrow; you have it a bit too pronounced and also coming downward a bit too much toward her nose, which gives her a more sophisticated look. Also her lower lip should be slightly fuller and should come out closer to the dip between cheek and chin on her right (our left). Her teeth are also less even in the photo and her front right tooth (our left) is larger and more prominent in real life. And lastly her left (our right) eye seems to be a bit more wide open - that is, higher in the vertical dimension - than you have it. These are very picky but one of the things I struggle with at times is the accurate depiction of age in children; it's so easy to get it slightly off and have a four year old look six or seven, and so I really focus in on this aspect of a painting.

Can't wait to see more!

Leslie - Thanks so much for looking at this in so much detail!

The child is the daughter of a close friend of mine - and is now a little older than shown the reference photo, so I'm finding it hard not to reflect her current appearance! I've adjusted the shapes of the eye and the mouth, and thought I'd adjusted the brow line... but looking at it on the computer I'm thinking that may still need a little more softening. . .

Thanks again!

Just a few minor changes... but figured I'd post the finished piece.

... Consider me a convert to oils :D

Terri, those changes really work well. I especially like the effect of the softer eyebrow. You got the age much more convincingly, too. Glad you tried oils. Now can you tell me what you especially like about them compared to acrylics?

Hi Leslie & Thanks!

I've got to say, I tried the oils expecting not to like them, or that it would be a disaster. But - based on just this one practice piece in oils... Several things have tipped the scales for me:

• Skin - soooo much easier to paint and blend (see comparison below, and how patchy the acrylics look next to the oils); also it seems easier to get believable skin tones (not sure why?); transitioning from light to shadow on skin, or adding a little bit of color to the skin was so much easier wet on wet.
• Less stress - going in to change something on the face, for instance, in the oils was much easier to do into the still wet paint - with still wet colors on the palette, than painting on top of (dried) acrylics and stressing over exactly matching some color and getting it blended to the next before either dried.
• Less time - making adjustments was easier in the oils, so it this painting took less time (~ 1/3rd) than any of the other portraits I've done - though it was a practice piece, and just a cameo at that, rather than a commission, so that may not be a fair comparison -- and I wouldn't be surprised if when it comes to a commissioned portrait, I'd spend just as much time, but think maybe it'd be a better result.
• Edges - easier to get soft edges
• Less toxic than I'd thought - am working with just the paints, and cleaning brushes with walnut oil. So, if I understand correctly, the varnishing will be the only time I've got to worry about toxic vapors? (other than pigment components that would need to be handled carefully for acrylics, as well)
• Easier on brushes - could be imagining this, but working with the oils has seemed much easier on my brushes, whereas the acrylics seemed really hard on them.
• Marketability - more of a market, don't you think?

What I'll miss about the acrylics:

• When you're done, it's dry!
• Being able to touch the canvas while working details (resting pinky to steady hand)

And lastly, what switching to oils means I'll have to get or figure out!:bewildere

• A nice stable easel - rather than my flimsy little collapsible one, which knocks over way too easily to be holding a wet painting!
• A mahl stick, how to use it and how to attach it to the easel/canvas
• How to varnish an oil portrait and whether or not I'll need retouch varnish?

:sunnysmil I'm guessing this is probably more than you were looking for Leslie! But I'm hoping that it might be helpful to someone else down the road. . .

(note: painting on left below is acrylic, on right is oils)