Natascha
 

Hello,

After cowering away from portrait painting for about ten years, I decided to try again. I would like to finish this portrait within a week so it will be dry by delivery. My style of painting is very impressionist, so I am not used to the soft style in which I tried to convey this portrait, and I'm not sure how effective it is (due to my inexperience of the technique)?

Any comments are appreciated, thanks for taking the time to look!

Happy painting and best wishes to all! :)

This is the reference, which is a bit of a blurry photo but one she liked.

close up of face from photo

Painting 16" x 20"

There is some scuba gear in the lower right corner which is unfinished; actually at this point everything is pretty much unfinished.

Painting close-up of face. Not really used to this soft style, all my work til now always shows big brush strokes. (Also, so sorry for the quality of my video camera.)

Carolyn, I like it a lot, especially the way you did the teeth. The only things I have noticed I would consider slight modifications. One, there seems to be a line going from the cloud formation right into her elbow. I would make the darker area larger and blend it into the darker area of the sky. The other thing would be the ribcage. You have a straight line going down, but on the original it makes an arch. Last, something on the left shoulder seems off. I don't know if it is too dark in value or if it arches slightly too much - or maybe I need glasses. I can't put my finger on it; maybe the seasoned professionals can figure it out and give you advice.

Overall, I think you did a very nice job.

Hi Carolyn,

I think it's a really nice present, this painting. They will be very happy with it.

I tried to make some corrections in how you placed the eyes. I used green dots and lines to adjust the position of the eyes, and to show some areas where you might accentuate the form of the skin a bit. I also added a grey version of the altered image, to show the effects of the adjustments of the eyes.

I also attached a picture in which I tried to show where you might correct the form of the arms. I placed red dots at some places to show where, in my view, the problem areas are.

Hope this helps,

Greetings,
Peter

You can see the dots better when you save the image to your hard drive and watch this in a program like Paintshop Pro or Photoshop to make it larger.

Silk purse from a sow's ear
 

Hello Carolyn,

I think this is a nearly virtuoso performance of painting skills given the utterly dreadful source photo you had to work from. The only technical suggestions I can add to Enzie's and Peter's comments are the following:

1. Soften the sky/sea horizon line to at least the same degree as the sand/sea line.

2. Soften the line of the backside of the hat brim against the sky.

3. The hand on top of the hat crown will surely be clipped by the frame rabbet if it's as close to the top as it appears to be. A little more sky above would have been in order.

It sounds like you have everything working against you on this project; a deadline combined with bad source material selected by the client. Nevertheless your painting looks to me like it improves on the photo in every respect while remaining very faithful to it. Your drawing skills are clearly top-notch. If the client likes the photo he/she's going to love the painting.

The things I like about the photo are the girl, the hat, and the backlit concept. The things not to like are too numerous to mention, as I'm sure you know. But I think the salient problem is her pose. The way her hand is placed on her hat makes it look as though she's trying to keep the hat from being blown off her head by the wind. On the other hand the hat is obviously secured by the neck cord, so that can't be it. Maybe she's trying for a glamour pose? If so, the gesture is way too tentative and fails utterly. The net effect of the ambiguity between these interpretations makes the pose awkward and obscures the girl's character. If you have access to her you might try to get her to pose for you where you have more control. She looks like a good subject; one you could do a great job on with some planning.

Keep up the good work!

I like the photograph, the pose and the lighting is playful and interesting, and so is the painting.

Peter

Thank you all for your nice comments!
 

Enzie,

Thank you so much for your comments and pointing out where I can make improvements. There is a problem with her left shoulder neck area, I think I may have bulked her up a bit too much, but I'm not really sure how to correct it now. Is that the area you were referring to?

Peter,

I REALLY appreciate your taking the time to do those corrections, which look great BTW, you are right on about everything! I will certainly work on those ever important eyes, and the other details you picked up on! And I will try to blow up the other picture in Photoshop; with some luck the computer won't crash this time. :bewildere

John,

I agree about softening up those areas, especially the brim of the hat, which I'm so happy you mentioned, because it may have gone unoticed. Actually I wish I would have painted this more alla prima so I could have been more succesful with lost and found edges. At this point I think it is almost reading as a cut out so I will definitley spend some time trying to correct that! About the hand on her hat, it does have a bit more room on the actual canvas, I slipped it in a frame just to take a look and it shows some sky above the hand. Unfortunately not enough for my liking, and this is on a prestretched canvas so there's no room to restretch. But I sure wish I would have given her more breathing room. Especially in the frame, she looks a bit cramped, Darn it! At least I won't make that mistake again.

The photo reference is not the best for sure! But I think it captures a lovely moment her boyfriend and she shared on a trip to Hawaii. And since it will be for his birthday present, I agreed it would be a nice moment to capture in paints. She is a good friend and very sweet with a good sense of humor, and she may have just been doing that, posing, in good fun! :)

Thanks again everyone for taking the time! I'll be doing some corrections and then post the new improved version later this week!

Best Wishes!