Underpainting of Alessia; first attempt
 

Hello!

I'm living in Germany and I'm 35 years old. I have had the desire to paint, when I discovered Bob Ross on TV, in December '01.

So, I've started with landscapes. My interests however, are portraits and figures. I learned very much from your Forum (already burned a full CD-R stuff from here). Many thanks to Karen Wells, Chris Saper, William Whitaker, Michael Georges and all others. You are like stars for me. I would like a become semi-professional (at least ;-)). In any case, I have become an enthusiast for realistic painting. I've bought a dozen books, like:

J. Sheppard: "How to paint like the Old Masters" (not for beginners);http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ex...&Search=Search

Rudy de Reyna: "Magic Realist Oil Painting"; http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ex...&Search=Search

Bill Creevy: "The Oil Painting Book: Materials and Techniques for Today's Artist"; http://www.portraitartist.com/bookstore/materials.htm , and

Lee Hammond: "How to Draw Lifelike Portraits from Photographs" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ex...strokeofgenius


I dared on last weekend, and here is my very first attempt, underpainting of Alessia, four years old, beautifully sweet, and the daughter of my Italian friend. Here, just somewhat sad and tired.(notice: Italians celebrate through nights WITH babies!)

I painted it with Raw Umber + White (a la Karin Wells' dog example, I haven't COG, Michael. :))With one #8 Daler-Rowney filbert-brush. (And 4 Q-tips!). It lasted about 12 hours in 3 Sessions, so far. I use a mix from Blackoil (I know:lead!) and Venetian Turpentine, all from http://www.kremer-pigmente.com).

Glazing medium: In Germany one can buy only Liquin (and Spanish Old Medium Preses,what is this, by the way?). NO Neo-Megilp or other Gamblin products here. Not to say, nowhere can you buy Genesis.

My friend comes in two weeks. I wouldn't like to ruin this picture. What do you say to it? What is missing? What should I alter? Not too dark? How can I make the hair better? Likeness? Any comments are welcome!

Should I try further, at all?

SORRY for my poor English! I hope you understand me.Thank you for your effort. (How you find you time for all this - beside painting - every day, unbelievable!)

Karin, time is money: I found this software to copy (trace) a picture:
http://www.mxac.com.au/oilpaint.htm

Many greetings,
Leslie

Now again
 

Ooops !

Now with IMG.

http://members.fortunecity.de/render...Underpaint.jpg

And the reference photo:
http://members.fortunecity.de/renderman35/Alessia.jpg

Leslie, wo in Deutschland lebst Du? Wenn Du hilfe brauchst mit uebersetzen schicke mir eine Email.Helfe Dir gerne damit.

Translation for non German speaking audience, I offered to help Leslie with any translation help she might need, after asking her where in Germany she lives.

Looking at the painting the left eye needs correction. The skin under the eye needs to droop down more rather than coming to an uprupt < closing. The bridge of the nose has to be fuller and the area above the lip left side has to be darker so that the mouth recedes, rather than pucker.

She is a beautiful little girl and your friend will surely love the portrait.

Hello Leslie,

A few observations:

You seem to draw her pupils as complete round forms, while parts of the pupils aren't visible in the source-photograph. The left (for us left) pupil is a bit closer to the nose in the photograph. The left corner of the mouth (for us left) is placed a bit too much to the left. The nose is too small in the underpainting, (like Enzie already said) and should be placed a little higher to match the photograph. The chin is too sharp.

Hope this helps.

Greetings,
Peter

Hi!

Many thanks for your comments! I've new pictures, fully overworked. Not perfect, but much better (I think at least :)).

Snapshot at daylight (first was too reddish). If you can't see, here is the link: http://renderman35.tripod.com/revised.jpg (nothing inserted by IMG,Cynthia :)).

Leslie,

You can use the "attachment" feature when you post to show an image. See instructions at the beginning of each critiques section.

Hallo !

I used the attachment-file function ALWAYS. But I've nothing to see, no preview. Picture is 390 W x 520 H and 30kb. Normally saved from ACDsee V4. I can read with all my software. I have no idea, what is it? Now, I'll try it not over LAN, but direct.