I have to use these colors - but I don't like them - plz help
 

Hi,
(may I post this here?)

I am currently working on a portrait. Another long distance commission. She is a famous Volleyball player of the Brazilian National Team. It is a b/d surprise gift (again, arghh) from her husband, and I am running out of time. So I decided to ask your help on the color balance. I must use those colors because of the uniform, and the husband wants the Brazilian flag in the background. Actually I am painting the moment when she was awarded with the bronze medal in the Panamerican Games last year.

Anyway, I am posting these 2 images, one frontal, but showing undesirable glare in some parts, and the other, a bit from the left, that shows the colors without the glares and more realistically. Next steps will be the details and apply the changes needed.

Any comments on the colors? Personally I am not used to such strong colors, especially the blue, it looks too warm to me. Although the digital image is making things look worse, I would love to hear your opinion.

Thanks in advance,
Ant

Dear Ant,

Here's what strikes me in this portrait regarding the color. I think that perhaps too many of the colors in the clothing and ribbon are highly and equally saturated. There are a couple of things you might consider. First, choose a color harmony, then desaturate with complements everything else. Particularly desaturating some of the light areas of clothing with skin color will help integrate the face and clothing. Desaturating color in the ribbon and medal, as well as softening some of the edges will help the focal point remain on the girl's face.

Congratulations of this wonderful commission, I am sure the family will be thrilled!

Ant--

Chris is right.

We think that some colors, such as uniform and flag colors are a fixed and immutable hue, value or saturation. But our perception of colors and their subsequent rendering will always be influenced by the color of the light falling on them.

The way to color harmony and balance is first to determine the temperature of the light--first whether the light is warm or cool, and if possible, if the light has a particular cast or hue, like the warm yellow-orange of sunrise or sunset, for example. In a certain color light, all colors the same temperature (and hue) of the light will be more saturated, and all the complementary colors will be grayed back and less saturated. Not all colors in a scene will have equal saturation.

Also, as a rule, cool light sources will have warm shadows, and warm light sources will have cool shadows, unless the light is peculiarly artificial such as stage lighting, for instance, and maybe even then.

There is a place for more grayed back, neutral colors and highly saturated ones in the same painting, the same as in nature. Again, for me, the key to figuring out what to use where hinges on determining the temperature of the light, and committing to it throughout.

Or as Richard Schmidt counsels, don't ask "What color goes with what?" like an interior decorator would, but "What is or isn't possible under this light."

Best--TE

Indeed...
 

Thank you guys!

Chris opened my eyes, and Tom helped me to understand :)

Yeah, I knew something was wrong, eventually what was wrong, but I could not define exactly where to apply the changes. I would want to blame on the reference photos. They were taken using flash. Light bouncing from everywhere, very confusing. Anyway, a lot yet to be done, all in a hurry, omg.

Now there's another point, which I would like to hear your professional opinion about it: since this is a long distance commission, I did show my client some images of the painting in progress via email, during the process. The problem (if we can call that a problem) is that he thinks it is good as it is. In fact he is very impressed. He clearly has a preference for vivid colors, as he hinted once or twice. Maybe that too has influenced me on the saturation side.

So the great dilemma is - he is satisfied, but I am not! That's why I posted this thread. I loved what Chris suggested and I think I should apply those changes right away. But how far can I go? Will he agree on the changing or will it be risky at this point? I don't want to discuss these technical issues with him. I must take a decision. The deadline is too close. Do you think it is a good idea if I apply only slight changes, in order to satisfy myself and make this piece a little better, without making it too noticeable?

What would you do?

Thank you again,
Ant

Ant--

What kind of deadline is it? There are deadlines and then there are DEADLINES.

If he wants it by a certain date, like a birthday or special occasion, and you've committed to it, or for a building dedication or some such public event, then these are DEADLINES. If he just wants it "right away" because he just wants it, that's a deadline.

Make the changes Chris suggested first, and see if you are more satisfied. Then show it to him, and suggest you'd like to have another pass at toning down some of the saturated color, and see what he says. You need not go into an extensive explanation. If it's due by a certain date, make it "unveilable" and sound him out about getting it back and addressing some of these issues after the fact. I did this with a recent library dedication--I got the portrait back after the dedication ceremony and worked on it some more, even though the clients were satisfied already. They liked it even more after the additional work.

But if he insists he loves it, and doesn't want you to change it at all, there may not be anything much you can do to convince him otherwise. If so, spend the check and use what you've learned on this one to make the next one better.

In other words, it's worth feeling him out, but use diplomacy and don't push it too far.

Best--TE

( My favorite quote regarding this is from Douglas Adams, the writer: "I love deadlines. I love the sound they make when they woosh by...")

It's ~*DEADLINE*~
 

Tom,

it's a birthday gift. And her birthday is on December the 3rd.

OK, this was done in a rush, because I could not use the 3 months gap I usually ask after the approval of the reference material. It was as narrow as 45 days. But my client is aware that the painting will be still wet to touch (not much, I hope).

In June I painted a similar work for a client in Italy. I was commissioned on 1st of June, the work had to be in Napoli by 7th of July . It was a big challenge, but I did it in 24 days and shipped it still wet (see in the attached photos the system of packing I had to use to avoid the front of the canvas from touching in any part of the pack). I plan to do the same kind of packing for this work here, and send it to Rio de Janeiro via fast mail (our Sedex).

You sure came up with some great advices. I thank you very much, Tom. Tomorrow I think I know exactly what to do :)

KInd regards,

Ant

Great packing job, Ant!

Let us know what happens. Either way I 'm sure you'll have a happy client.

Hi Ant,

Here's what I was thinking... there is a lot of fabric draping around in this painting. I'm wondering if you can soften or even turn those drapery folds in the background into abstact shapes? Harley Brown does this frequently in his brightly hued paintings.

I know you were asking for color help, but my gut reaction to this painting (besides greying down the color and softening the edges furthest from the face) was to eliminate some of those folds in the background.

I've shipped things wet more than once, and I hate coming up with packing solutions. Can you elaborate just a bit on your method? How is the frame held together? What is that last transparent layer? How much did it cost to put together?

Maybe I should have started a new one
 

Thank you.
I took all your advices.
Some things are not easy to change at this point, because I work in layers and there's transparency everywhere. Basically I tried to balance the colors as much as I could. I changed the background, got rid of that closer fold and showed more of the blue circle with white stars of the Brazilian flag. I also added a kind of fantasy backlight (behind the head) trying to lead the attention of the eyes to that point of the picture. Linda suggested an abstract background, but the national flag was a request. The super detailed medal was a request as well, so I had to keep my usual sharp edges there.
This picture is supposed to illustrate the career of that athlete, or at least that very special moment when she was representing her country. This was clearly a goal since my very first contact with the husband client.
Well, like I said, maybe I should have started a new one. I would if I had time. I'll take this experience and try better next time. The most important is that I showed these changes and my client is even more satisfied. If I don't really like this work, is another history.

Jen, that transparent layer in the packing is an acrylic board (to protect the front of the canvas). That painting was shipped wet, unframed, and crossed the Atlantic without any problem. I'll post more details on that for you soon.

Take care, thank you all again.

Ant

Hi Ant,

I'm curious with the 3rd pic you showed about your packing process. There seems to be a layer of opaque plastic on top of the painting - the fragmented look of the painting with the plastic layer reminded me of bubble wrap. Is that bubble wrap?

If it is, how do you prevent it from smudging, if the painting is still wet? I hope you can enlighten me on your packing process, because i tend to send it after my paintings are more or less dried on the surface. It'll certainly be helpful especially if i meet tight datelines like you do! :)

Hi Marcus!

That layer is a hard acrylic board. I always use a thin acrylic board inside protecting the front of my paintings, to avoid particles of UPS (which I also use to protect the work, like many companies do when they ship their products) from sticking to the wet (or semi-wet) paint in the moment of the "unpacking process". You have to think in advance. When your client unpacks it, he will not know technically how to procede, so it's up to you to make it simple and safe for him. Small particles of UPS are really a pain, and sticky paint seems to atract it like sugar to flies. In the first picture of that packing in a previous post you see 2 pieces of wood attached to the painting (stretched canvas, unframed). Since it was shipped unframed, I did not have to worry about it's sides, so I used 6 small screws (3 each side) to fix the 2 pieces of wood in the longer sides of the canvas. That way I constructed a kind of "cassis" to support the surrounding protection. This structure was only to create an empty space between the wet surface and the materials used for packing. I used thick pieces of UPS (5cm) all around. Knowing about the danger of the small particles, I covered all the UPS pieces with a thin plastic (wrap). The front was protected with the acrylic board, between the UPS and the surface of the canvas (plus the "empty space", of course). I found that it doesn't matter how much you roll the UPS with the wrap plastic, the clients always destroy them when unpacking, so the acrylic board was the best solution to minimize the problem. You can stick a warning somewhere inside the pack, saying "at this point you must keep this side up and cut all the tapes, remove all the UPS and pull the picture UP. Keep it's face down untill you move it away from the remainings of the packing" ( see the picture attached bellow). Well this is for when I ship unframed works. Framed ones require an extra protection and I'll send some pictures showing you how I packed this painting of this topic in a new post.

Ant

First, here you have a photo of the framed picture. Because of the modern approach of this painting with the (arghss) vibrant blue-green-yellow colors I chose a clean style frame. My client had sent me some photos of the place where it was going to be hung (I attached one here too), so the light yellow color of the frame is supposed to match perfectly. Well, maybe If I had chosen white it would give more contrast, but matte white is always dangerous, you know. The light yellow did it. The 3rd photo is a close-up of the painting.

So this is how I packed it:
 

Image 1- You see I used 4 pieces of foam to protect the frame. It's 3cm thick so I believed it also could work to keep the acrylic board away from the sticky surface (front of the canvas). The acrylic is already there, in the bottom, with a 3cm UPS (the picture is face-down in the photo) and I put it all together with some cotton strings first.

Image 2- I attached the 5cm-thick UPS plate on top and sealed everything with adhesive tape (I used some smashed paper to fill the empty spaces in the corners). Here is where I stuck a warning saying that the person who was unpacking should keep it in that position from that point onward and cut all the tapes in order to remove the picture, pulling up , carefully, and take it away from the remaining of UPS and foams.

Image 3- I used some bubble wrap, more to avoid water than any other thing (it

Quality assured!
 

Hi Ant,
Thanks for the lesson on packaging artworks. It certainly does add value to our customer's purchases, knowing that their artworks receive first-class treatment like how you do it for your clients! :thumbsup:

Thanks again for the enlightenment!

marcus