The Three Graces
 

Hi,

Here's a recent commission in oil, 45" x 35", of mother and daughters (the statue represents the husband, as it was a gift to the mother).

The daughters I never had a chance to meet, so the faces are from snapshots and the bodies are from imagination. I was able to pose and shoot the mother, with this composition in mind.

Linda

I like this. If you want a critique then what I would say is to have the skin tones more blended.

Nicely painted, though I have a couple of suggestions, one of which will only help you on future work, not this one.

It looks as if you worked from reference that was lighted from the front, as in with a flash on a camera. That leads to an extreme flattening out of the forms, which I see in this painting. There are many threads on the forum that talk about how to light your subject in such a way that there will be a much greater sense of roundness, volume and "reality" to the finished painting. Something to think about for your next portrait.

The second suggestion I have is one you could incorporate in this painting. The sculpture in the back competes very strongly for attention with the three "live" people. You might want to tone it down quite a bit so it stays as part of the background and doesn't turn this into a portrait of four subjects. I see some nice brushwork on the foliage, though it too competes with your subjects for attention.

Thanks Michele
 

Lighting conflicts were my personal frustration with this painting. The daughters' faces were painted from existing snapshots (they're off at college), so I had no control over the overall angle or the subjects' original lighting. I could take an actual posed shot of the mother. However, then the problem is, do I paint her with natural backlight, or actually put the front lighting so she's lit as her daughters are. I have to give the impression the lighting is coming from a backlit sun, as that's how the statue is lit. AAAAARGH!

Thankfully I saw the mother in person, as she was not at all photogenic nor looked like herself in photos, and so a lot of the painting of her face was from memory.

Hi Linda

Thanks
 

Thanks so much for the recommendation, and I'll be sure to check it out. I really appreciate the help, especially since I would imagine this won't be the last time this hurdle comes up.

Linda

The hurdle of lighting problems (frontal lighting, inconsistent lighting, etc.) will come up virtually any time someone asks you to work from their photos instead of ones you take.

Many artists on this site (myself included) politely turn down commissions when the client asks us to paint from their photos.

In my humble opinion, the statue deserves special recognition as it represents a very significant position in the lives of the three women and, in fact, the very existance of the painting. Extra light shed on this subject is light well spent and the laws of plein air painting are not bent in vain.

I agree actually
 

When I painted this, I always considered in my mind that I was painting four subjects, because of what the statue represents. This is also why the statue is literally "connected" specifically to the mother. :)

I have painted several paintings where I've had to overide a client's flash, and most have worked pretty well. I think for this particular one I was just plain scared to take liberties with the images, given some issues.