Brothers
 

Hi, these two pieces were done as a mother's day gift. The client and his wife were very happy with the results, which is always great to hear. The references were from school photos, and the younger boy was almost a full body shot which resulted in a grainier pic. The teeth were some trouble, but I think I did an OK job with them. Any suggestions on any part of the pictures would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Older brother
 

The older one.

Nice job based on the fact that you had only school pictures to work from. Think how much better your work could be when you shoot your own high quality source photos! (Shooting without a flash, etc. Have you had a chance to review the suggestions in the photo threads, elsewhere on the Forum?)

Given the poor source photos, one thing that could have been handled differently would be to have de-emphasized the detail and grey tones in the teeth. I also feel that the intense color in the background and the artificial halo shape of these areas detract from the faces quite a bit.

Michele,

Thank you, and I agreee with you completely. I went through the threads on how to handle teeth, and I did give them a try, but I wasn't happy with the blended teeth look. Although it probably would have worked with the younger one, but I only tried it on the older. It got to a point where I was very concerned about building up too much pigment. I did add flesh tones over the teeth, which I've never really experimented with before I started doing children's portraits.

I love taking my own pictures and usually use flash myself, but so far any commissions have been surprise gifts and taking my own pics would have been a problem. I stopped using direct flash for my personal drawings and have achieved more natural results.

Although the blues are intense, they are a bit less saturated in the originals, but still strong. The mat actually took care of the halo look, but to be honest, I really didn't notice until you mentioned it. I realize I could have handled it better. Thanks again!

On the teeth, I'm not really thinking of a "blended" look, just a narrower range of lighter values, and more simplification (less detail).

As far as doing surprise portraits from existing photographs, you might want to explain to your clients that they (and you) will me much happier with the result if they give a certificate as the surprise, or an empty frame wrapped up with the certificate in it. Then you can take your own photos, produce a much better portrait and they'll have a truly original work of art, and not just a large copy of a photo they already have.

Also, you'll find that the recipients often enjoy becoming involved in the collaborative process of making the portrait. They get to help decide what the subject will wear, where the setting should be, whether to go with an introspective or more upbeat expression, etc.

You can obviously draw and nail down the values well. You could, however, begin to take your work to a much higher level by working only from your own photos.

Good luck, and I look forward to seeing more of you work on the forum in the future!