Emma
 

Yesterday I had the biggest challenge to date. Trying to get a reference photo of Emma. Emma was born prematurely at 24 weeks. It is truly a miracle that this little girl survived, however being born so early left her with quite a few health problems. She is legally blind and seemed to me to be autistic, though I am not sure. She did NOT cooperate at all, so I basically just followed her lead and followed her around the yard for an hour taking pictures. 375 pictures later, these were the best two. How do you feel about these as reference photos? Which would you choose? The mother likes the drama of the light in the first one, but she likes the soft expression on the second one.

Mary, I personally prefer the lower (second photo). I think it displays a gentle and delicate portrait of a beautiful little girl. Given this child's unfortunate circumstance, I really see something that is heart warming about her expression and pose. Technically, the lighting looks a little difficult to incorporate with the background, so you might have to adjust the tones accordingly. I am sure it will turn out great, regardless of your choice.

David

No. 2
 

Hi Mary -

I echo David - I like the softness of the second photo - not only in the lighting but in her expression.

Hate to say it, Mary, but I'd schedule a second photo shoot. I recently had a photo session with a severely disabled young boy and I know what you mean about working with a subject who will not, or cannot co-operate. We held two photo sessions and the second time got some better face shots, one of which I used in the painting I just delivered.

Even without her disabilities, it's often hard for a child as young as this to "perform" at a photo shoot. A perfectly healthy and lovely five year old posed for me last fall (if you can use the word "posed") and none of the face shots were useable, since she couldn't hold still or even stay in one place. We scheduled a second shoot the following week and got exactly what we needed.

One of the other reasons I'd do a second shoot is that her dress in these shots is very distracting, in my view. Something simple and classic would be much better, I think.

David and Julie, That picture was the unanimous choice of the family.

Michelle, I have been thinking about your comments for a few days and when I spoke with the mother asked how she felt about re-shooting. They really don't want to, and I can understand why, Emma REALLY didn't like that at all, it was a very stressful hour for everyone involved. (Not to mention they live 3 hours away) She also doesn't want to change that dress, there is some significance to it. She said she didn't understand why I would want to redo, that was one of the best pictures she had ever gotten of her. I didn't really know at that point why myself. I'm not crazy about her hands being behind her back, however she made the comment that Emma either always has her hands behind her back, or up beside her face. So that is her.

What exactly bugs you about the picture, besides the dress. And why does that dress bother you? It does look very busy in the reference shown, but that is some sort of weird distortion. Is it just a personal preference or do you really see a problem with it? Is it the lighting or the pose? I searched the SOG websites and found a few portraits done with the hands behind the back, while it isn't my favorite, it has been done. Thanks!

Mary,

I went through a photo session yesterday with my daughter. She left for Spain on a three week language seminar. So I decided to shoot some photos by her to paint from.

These were taken in our garden with some flowering bushes as part of the background.

But I had to ask her out three times, to shoot, because I was not sure of what exactly I was looking for.

Finally, today, I choose one from the first session, because I feel that it expresses some of her personality in a way. That will be my reason for doing this painting.

Why , I also, think that your second reference is good, is that the light is soft and shows the little girl in a harmonious pose.

And I can not ignore the fact that she is blind, and think of how she must perceive the world.

There are several structures of fabric and other materials around her, such as her dress in silk and knitting with embroidered flowers on. Her mother has of course chosen the colors, but with regard to the preference of her daughter, if she could have, I guess. Also there is the iron decoration on the veranda that can be explored with the sensible fingers of a blind.

She also seem to be listening, like "seeing" with her ears.

Only one thing bothers me. That is the white diagonal line pointing at her face. I would suggest that you take it away.

Allan

Mary, it was mostly the dress that I found distracting but if it's important to the family in some way that needs to be taken into consideration, of course. I didn't notice her hands were behind her back. That doesn't bother me at all. I think it was a few other subtle things: her ambiguous expression, the fairly flat light, and there seems to be some camera distortion, as if you were very close to her when this shot was taken.

All this is moot if photo sessions are stressful for the little girl, though. If I were in your shoes I'd go with this shot.

Dear Mary,

If it were me, I'd do another shoot, even if it has to happen a couple of months away. The light and shadow are wonderful on the first, but the expression is tentative and troubled. In the second, I think you are left without any visual information to make the portrait as three- dimensional - as I know you routinely do.

Even with perfect subject circumstances, getting good reference photos outdoors is one of the most difficult things you can do. It is both mentally and physically exhausting (375 shots!) on both ends of the camera. I would prefer to beat my head against an indoor wall.

Now that I have screamed- just kidding. This is stressing me out having so many points of view. Maybe from now on in situations where I know I am limited I won't ask for opinions.

It does look a little distorted to me to, who knows where I was when I took it ;) However, there ARE 373 other shots I can paste up all over the place if need be.

Mike, 375 sounds like a lot, I know. But you have to remember this camera has a feature that takes 5-10 shots at one click of a button, so it is easy to get to that number. Most of the time Emma had her hands over her face or was pulling her dress up over her head, so thank goodness for that snazzy little feature or I wouldn't have even gotten a picture of her face at all!

I think, what I will do is compromise here. I will TRY to do it from this one, combined with some others, and if it stinks, trash it and re-shoot.
But at least they could see for themselves and it certainly isn't going to hurt me to paint for the heck of it, I'm just so bored over here with nothing to do. :D

It would be a couple of months anyway before they could come back to town to take the pictures again anyway.

I just went through them all again, what are your thoughts on these two? I'm not sure why the mother skipped over these.

Hi Mary, in my opinion, photo references are a necessary evil. In this case you may have to reach farther and find the personality inside the girl. I would ask the parents to tell you many good stories about her, what makes her smile etc. You've already met her, what did you feel from her? I see a very fragile, sensitive and deeply introspective little person. Design your painting more from the heart than religiously following the perfect photo reference (you may never get one). Your third photo looks like a possible, it has better modeling of the shadows in her face and the light is quite nice. It also has less of the green reflections which I don't believe are flattering to her.

We talk a lot about value, drawing, composition and all the technical aspects of portraiture, but very little about the "heart" of the powerful painting. What did you find to love about this little girl, and what did you feel from the parents? If you use this knowledge and the 375 photos of her you will succeed, I'm sure of it.

Jean

Hi Mary,

I am one who understands poor photo references, having taken many myself.

I think that while this reference isn't ideal, it is very usable. As Allan suggested, removing the white bannister is important. I've done a photoshop rendering with it removed (along with the top of the bannister that peeks out over the top of her head.)

This can be a very strong portrait. The contrast between the soft blur of the little girl (with a few judiciously placed hard edges) and the variations of rough textures behind her can make for a very compelling composition.

I know you'll do a wonderful job with this one.

Good luck.

Mary,

Hoping not to complicate things, I'm assuming that you will go forward with the photograph you and the family have selected, as the best of practical options available for now.

Because of the fairly flat light and very subtle value range within the figure, you might need to push those values a little bit toward the extremes in order to get the depiction of form. To that end, I'm attaching, first, a grayscale version of Cindy's attachment, and then the same image "overexposed," that is, with the contrast pushed way up, to more clearly show the value shapes and locations. (I'm not suggesting that you paint your value differentiation this markedly -- this is deliberately over the top for demonstration purposes only. You will of course be more subtle.)

The disappearing arms may or may not present a problem, but I think it essential that you pay very close attention to the values first, drawing second, color third. (If you can do all three at once, great.)

The grayscale also shows, for better or worse, the compositional weight of that white brick structure to our right and the white floral riser behind her. You're going to want to greatly subdue those values, as they will otherwise overpower the girl as well as the composition.

Thanks everyone for your help. I know there are several of you that don't think I should try this at all, however, I really am going to go at this with the thought that I may be doing the whole thing over. I know that the family really doesn't want to deal with re shooting the photos, so I think this is the best approach at this point.

To add to this challenge, I have been asked to just put greenery in the background. So now I need to come up with a background that will work.

As far as the greenery, I'd go find something you like and photograph it in EXACTLY the same lighting conditions as you had for the shot of the girl. Same soft light, same angle of light, etc.

One of my favorite artists for painting children outdoors is Hongmin Zou, on SOG at http://hongminzou.com -- check out his backgrounds, especially how the values enhance the composition and make the figure stand out.

I have started this and am not sure how to handle her eyes. It is hard to tell from the monitor, but because of her sight issues, her eyes do not always line up. From what I remember, MOST of the time you looked at her they did not line up and had an odd look. Now that I am working on her eyes, what do I do? Do I correct them or paint as they are? Do I make this decision on my own, or somehow ask the parents what they think? :bewildere

It is amazing how something so subtle as moving the pupil a tad can change the whole likeness.

How would you handle this?

Here is a close up of her eyes. If you notice, the pupils are not going in the same direction and it appears as if her left (our right) pupil is larger than the other. Would you paint this as is, correct completely or just correct a tiny bit?

HI Mary,

In most situations I would just ask the subject (or the parent) how they feel about an irregularity. In this situation , though, I think I'd just paint the eyes the way they are. You'll be able to minimize the asymmetry by making one eye (here, the eye on our left) the focal point - so its edges are a little crisper, its contrast a little higher.

I did a portrait about a year ago where the child had one eye that tended to wander a bit away from center. As I painted the eye in a "correct" location, it was immediately obvious to me that her likeness was diminished. In this case, I just made the decision to paint the eye just as it is, and the parents were thrilled.

You will do a great job.