If you look, but are quiet, do you not like?
 

Cynthia, in her words of wisdom, told me to take advantage of this Forum, to further my work - but it seems people take a peek and do not comment - ouch - I take that as a negative, she reassures me people are busy and to not take it personally, so I thought I would post my latest "finished" with the reference, then I am going to start another thread with one in progress that I really need help with! Thanks!

Here is the image.

Here is a detail view:

and this is the reference:

Elizabeth, I never know how to interpret the deafening silence, either. I had only one response to my intro but I've gotten into some great conversations on technical issues. That said, I do not do pastels, yet, although I admire them greatly. I think you've handled the medium very well. Also you've taken the subject out of a cluttered and not especially aesthetically-appealing background and placed her in a pleasing setting. I'm wondering why you softened the shadows on the face as much as you did although the results look good. I prefer more shadow, myself. But overall it's quite nice, and I'll bet the subject is very pleased with it.

Elizabeth,

It happens often that many look and don't respond. I know there are many "lurkers" who read, but never join in. (Hello lurkers, come on in, the water's fine!) They might be shy or perhaps they are beginners and feel they don't have something worthwhile to contribute yet. I don't really know.

But, sit tight. I'm sure now that you've called attention to this issue that you will get some response. And, the lack of response has nothing to do with the quality of your work, believe me.

Thanks Leslie,

Thinking back, I have no idea why I played down the big shadow, other than he had such a soft personality, I just couldn't make a lot of hard lines.

I too feel timid about making commments to the wonderful work at this site. Mainly because I am not as "pro" as I would like to be. Let's face it, instead of writing the books, they are sitting in my lap getting pastel dust all over them, so I am afraid I will say something "un-educated or disagreeable" to the pros here. But, I do see post with out replies so I will try and say something. I just love doing pastels so much, they fit my ADHD personality, since I don't have to clean up! I want everyone to love them, so I can only think of two great people to quote here with their incredible wisdom...

First - Thumper, circa 1960's, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" - this is what I am afraid of.

But then there is one of my art teachers from years ago, George Chavetel, circa 1976 - whenever anyone would come to the studio he would always ask them to critique our work. They always said "I don't know much about art", and George would always respond, "Yeah, but you know what you like!" So that is the advice I will carry myself with! There is always something to like! Thanks.

Whoops, Elizabeth, I don't know why I assumed it was a female; I think the hair looks softer and more feminine in your pastel than in the photo, and the chin is less well defined, too. So I read it as a woman and then didn't let the slightly more masculine appearance in the photo deter me. In any case it's very nice, and please don't let your subject in on my error! He would probably not be amused. I am sure that if you knew him and saw the painting there would be no doubt in your mind about his gender.

There are a lot of very accomplished professionals on this Forum and perhaps people get weary of saying, "That's great!" over and over. And some paintings seem to strike a chord, whether positive or negative. Just keep posting, Elizabeth.

Hi Elizabeth,

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Thank you all so much for your input - it is so nice to get it! :)

Mari and Leslie, it was a major learning for me that you both touched on the shadow and how I didn't make use of it. My lack of experience here, I thought the shadow reflected too much "snapshot". I think it has been the wildest ride trying to relearn all of my studio 101, with temperature and value. These are two things I never really dealt with as an art director for all these years. I left it to the stylist and photographer to worry about, and knew when I liked it. Reading Chris Saper's book re-introduced it to me. (I was playing golf one day with a guy named Kelvin, so I asked him what prompted his mother to name him after a light temperature scale? - he asked if I was a scientist! LOLOLOL).

I think I struggle with the hard vs. soft edges too - I can tell I will learn so much here.

Mari, your DC friend's work is amazing!