Alice and Randy
 

This is getting close I think. I'm hoping to finish it by the end of the week. Today, I am planning on:

- pulling some reflected blues into his suit to integrate their figures.
- lightening the really dark shadow on her face just a bit.
- putting a little more color back into her lips and cheeks....
(that got washed out yesterday when I was corrected some of her features.)

So... have at it, please let me know if there's anything I'm overlooking!
Thanks!

Hi Terri,
I don't have anything to add about the faces; they should be pleased with their likeness.
On the overall painting, one thing that bothers me is the man's suit sleeve. The it seems to draw much more attention than the sleeve in the reference, pulling attention away from the faces. Once my attention is drawn to it, the way the folds are modelled makes it look like much thicker material than the suit appears at the lapel and wrist.

Hi Chuck - Thanks! Well you've managed to zoom in on the fudged part of the painting :o... (That arm was repositioned in Paint Shop Pro in the reference photo to move the hands closer to the faces. The disappearing arm in the reference was how I hid adjustment... ) The apparent thickness of the fabric is not something I 'd noticed, but I agree... especially at the elbow and on the lower arm. I'll have to play with it a little more and see if I can't get it to read more believably. ...maybe reduce the value on the lower part of the arm and soften the top/front edge of the sleeve.

Thanks again!

Updated images
 

Well... here's where it is now...
I've made the changes mentioned above and tried to address the concerns about the arm/sleeve that Chuck mentioned, pushing it back into the 'dark side'.

By the way, this is 30"x24", oil on canvas.

Terri, very nice job and you've certainly got the likenesses down well. My only suggestion would be to push your darkest darks and your lightest lights a little more; right now the tonal quality isn't varied enough so it looks a little flat. There's much more contrast in your reference photo, and particularly her hair and features, and his eyes, are darker there. This one was quite a challenge, wasn't it!

Hi Leslie! Thanks for the feedback.

I think what you may be seeing is a combination of glare and sunken in colors. I guess I was a little overeager to post the adjusted coloring on her face and posted these updated images even though I wasn't able to get a good clear shot of it. :o

I'll try to post a better image of the painting in the morning when the light in my studio seems to be better for photographing and hopefully the paint won't be quite so shiny.

Terri,

Nice job. The only thing I see is that I'd want to integrate them into the background more. Maybe some blurred edges and some green from the background added into their hair, clothes?

Complementary Colors
 

I don't have much to add to what is said about the faces, the modeling is well done. What I think needs to be addressed is the overall color.

The green background and the bright blue of her dress fight.

When I am doing figures together, I usually have them wear the same color. It makes them look more unified, even if they are on the brink of a divorce. There is on my website a picture of a couple in a landscape. I knew I wanted to paint them in their lovely lakeside home in the autumn, To counterbalance the bright orange of the leaves, I had them both wear variations of blue. The orange was bright and the blues were subordinate and duller.

You have make a decision from the getgo, what your color scheme is going to be, complementary, analagous or monochromatic.

In the original shot it looks like they were both wearing black, that works fine with the rather bright green background. All you need to do was add a touch brighter red lipstick on tha lady and give his tie a hit of duller red.

If they both are in blue the background could be a dull orange with his tie providing a bright orange accent. Or the background could also be a dull blue if you are to make her dress rather bright and his suit a navy, with an orange accent.

I think the hands could be toned down a bit as well.

There are times when a painting is like an old leaky boat, you fix one spot and another spot needs work. It helps to do a quick color study beforehand.

You have done a great job on the faces, I think this will work fine with a few color adjustments.

Two additional hints, I always overrouge my subjects ( even CEO's). Then I take some liquin and tint the photos even more. The extra color seems to work in paintings, if not in life.

I hopes this helps, this is not meant to discourage or dishearten you.

Sincerely,

Kim -
Thanks so much for the feedback. I do need to revisit some of those edges. As far as integrating the color goes, it looks like maybe I've got to figure out what the colors ought to be first :bewildere . . .

Sharon -
Thanks so much for the feedback, I really appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts! Your points on color and color theme and needing to integrate the colors are well taken. It seems to be something I'm struggling with lately, and haven't got quite figured out.... at least I'm not getting it figured out before getting myself into a mess, these days.


I'm attaching below a glare-free photo of the painting as it is currently, and a paint shop pro altered version with the dress turned a dull burgundy wine-color (The dress she actually wore was a deep blue purple that I'd pushed more towards the blue) .... I'm wondering if this would work, rather than putting her in black?

Terry,

When you work with complementary colors it helps if one of the colors dominates, ie bright red with dull green. Also you are dealing with several kinds of green warm and cool. I don't know if the monitor is correct but in the previous picture his jacket is more olivey and her dress is bright blue and the background is an intense green. Disparate greens like this can work in a landscape but is difficult to pull off in a portrait such as this.

I think at this point, to me at least, the best solution would be to keep the dress blue, put him in a navy suit and employ a soft medium blue grey background. A strident green can dull the skintones by comparison whereas a dull grey blue would make them look brighter. The grey blue should be in the same family as the dress color, it seems somewhat of an ultramarine, which means the background blue should not lean towards the green. The accent color, since the blue is more toward a purply blue would be a lovely small touch of yellow. Not a cool yellow but a yellow with some orange in it. His tie could have a the blue of her dress with a yellow stripe.

Try to put some yellow in her necklace. It should work.

I have been in this situation. It can be very frustrating. Put your feet up, have a cup of tea and look at it in the morning.

Sincerely,

I actually like this new color scheme. For what it's worth anyway. The colors wouldn't be so pure. There would be some of the background color affecting the shadows of side and top planes it reflects into. The same goes for the color of her suit. It would reflect into his suit and into the under planes of her jaw. Colors reflect and bounce everywhere. Your painting looks more like a hand colored photo than a harmonious scene. It's very difficult to make these things up though. It really needs to be observed from reality. The best solution is to set up everything so it looks good before you paint it. That's what Sargent and Paxton did, just to name two.

The thing that bothers me the most though are the dark value shadows under his jaw. Look at your photo. See how much darker the light part of the suit is compared to his jaw shadows. You have knocked the intrinsic value relationships that existed in your setup and thwarted them. The result is an unnatural look. Scumbling over these shadows with a lighter value would help.

Good luck.

Hi Terri,

"Married couple" paintings are the hardest thing in the world to do well, in my opinion, and I just wanted to let you know that I like your painting very much so far. I'm about to begin one of these myself and I'm watching this thread with keen interest.

I'll keep out of the color harmony discussion. The last few portraits that I've done have had very warm backgrounds and I seem to be wandering off in those directions. (I'm hoping that Tolkien was right: "Not all those who wander are lost.")

Oh Sharon! --
Thanks so much for all the input and insight, it's something I REALLY need to keep in mind at the beginning of the whole painting process, and do a whole lot more planning before jumping into the painting! (and I think I need to develop a better sense of what works, too... so your comments on pairing more intense with less intense etc. etc. are greatly appreciated!) I mocked up the blue toned color scheme that you recommended in Paint Shop Pro, and those colors really would be beautiful together. (I've posted the mock-up below). Now, ..let me back up and tell you that my heart also sank when I read your post, because when I posted the sort of wine colored dress version I thought, well, now that certainly looks better than the blue... and went ahead and painted over that dress on impulse... So that the dress was no longer even blue... and your beautiful color plan meant repainting the entire canvas, something I just didn't feel up to doing -- and that really doesn't fit into the timetable for this piece!

Marvin--- your post probably saved my sanity tonite! :) It came along just after I'd read Sharon's and when I was in the middle of pulling my hair out for painting over the blue so impulsively. So I'm going to try to make a go of it with the wine colored dress... I hear what you're saying about the reflected colors and the contouring, I hope I'll be able to pull that together --- Thanks!

Linda, -- yes... I think I may have bitten off a little more than I can chew with this one. Two on one canvas somehow seems a little trickier with adults than kids. I haven't painted adults before AND have gotten used to doing outdoors backgrounds which somehow seem to come together more easily for me, colorwise. As far as the color harmony goes, I'm feeling like, hmmm... well, I'm just not trusting my judgement in that area lately. The other painting I'm currently working on (also indoors) is also in color limbo. Maybe I should stick with the outdoors ones!

So I'm going with the wine color scheme partly for expedience... This painting is supposed to be done about now... but am wondering if there's a concensus that the blue theme is superior to this, perhaps I ought to offer the client the option of having the color reworked in that direction, and pushing the delivery date back?

Update
 

Well... here's where it's at right now. I'm still combing through yesterday's feedback to see what I've missed yet. (At this point I've just changed her dress color, and tried to go back to capture some of that reflected light... but haven't touched on other details.)

Any additional thought/comments are welcome!

I wouldn't make any further major color changes. As Marvin mentioned, those decisions really need to be done at the very beginning, by choosing articles that actually are the colors you want. The highly complex reflections and influences between colors are just about impossible to predict and almost always look "made up" if one attempts to guess or invent them, especially without many years of experience at painting these color influences from life.

Next time, even if painting a two-adult-interior portrait, you'll have a MUCH easier time of it, by doing this planning up front, guaranteed!

Terry,

I would keep what you have here. Perhaps just adding a small bright touch to the tie would work. Your figures have more unity with the darker clothing tonalities.

I think I spend more time preparing for a painting often than painting it.
I did a portrait of a lady in a red gown. After studying her face and build I sent photos of dress recommendations to her. I asked her height. I then went to her home and measured camera distances, to see where the best angles were. I stuck a mannequin dressed in the same color as her gown to see if anything else was needed to add to the picture. She loved white roses, which was ok with me . I stuck my dummy, looked through my camera lens so I could see where I would like the roses to come. I bought an urn, contacted a local florist, told her what I needed and she arranged for the appropriate amount of flowers to be ready for the photography.

There were more preparation details, but this is an example of some of the work that went behind the portrait.

Being prepared for a portrait session, be it from life or from photos gives both your client and yourself confidence and reduces wasted time. Leave as little as possible to chance. Most clients, in my experience, like good pastry, don't benefit from too much fussing.

Nelson Shanks says that great paintings are created because of the decisions made right at the beginning, not at the end.

Sharon -- Wow - Thanks for sharing how you approach planning for your portraits! (And by the way, the lady in red with the white roses is stunning! :thumbsup: ) That level of up-front involvement had never occurred to me. Your clients must love being so well taken care of!

Michelle, Thanks so much for the encouragement! I've learned my lesson on this one! It probably took 3 times as long as it needed too and for all the wrong reasons! :) From here on out, color and composition questions will be resolved up front... and no more reference photos that need 'help'!

Terri, the portrait's looking very good. You've pushed the values so that it has a brighter, fresher appearance and the flesh tones are livelier. The background color works well with the skin tones; I just wish there was some echo of that greenish color elsewhere, although I can almost see it in his suit. Otherwise I think it's an excellent job of portraying a difficult subject with less than perfect reference material. I'll bet they're really pleased.

Fini.
 

Thanks Leslie.... you're right -- the clients are thrilled with it --so that helps. They're completely oblivious to how much of a struggle it's been behind the scenes. I've sure learned a lot with this one!


Figured I'd post the finished painting here just to close the loop. I've reworked his suit sleeve, brightened the tie, softened the shadows under his chin and the 5 o'clock shadow on his upper lip, etc.

Terri, that's very nice! Congratulations!