Little girl in acrylic
 

Hi,

This is painted from a photo my sister took of a little girl in Africa. It's 12x16, acrylic on board. The front flash and tight cropping is not ideal, but does it work here? I just couldn't resist her expressive face. Critiques welcome, thanks.

Closeup

Her face is very cute. The cropping may be the biggest problem. I am no certified expert and I am sure that such cropped poses have been successfully marketed but in general it seems rude to show just a little bit of a hand and cut off the rest. There is a style of composition taught in some places called "seeing through a window". I suppose if you had a large group of similar images in your portfolio you could promote this as a style. Probably in a less traditional area or Europe.

Hi Rochelle,

Thanks for your thoughts, and for taking the time to reply. You mentioned that the cropping may be the biggest problem, what else don't you like about the painting?

Regards,

Well, since you ask, I don't like the fact that it's hard to tell what her chin is resting on. I think that should be clearly indicated.

Holly, you've captured very lifelike flesh and excellent skintones. I agree that the flash created some limitations, but the pose is very fresh and warm and the color is quite good.

I find the cropping of the hand on our right to be somewhat awkward, though. Also, because of the strong value difference between the skintones and the fabric the head and arms seem to be floating. Otherwise, it's very nicely rendered, and very "living". Good job!

Dear Holly,

Thank you for posting this little portrait. You have asked specifically about cropping and flash, so I will comment on those aspects.

I think you have done exceedingly well in interpreting skin tones, given that your light source was a camera-attached flash. Your portrait shows attention to drawing, modeling and three-dimensional form, which is also very difficult with this kind of source information. You've shown temperature variety in the skin tones as well.

That being said, there is no question that the better the lighting is, the more successful the portrait will be. I can't think of a single situation where a camera-mounted flash could compete with natural lighting, or artificial directional lighting that proudces interesting light and shadow patterns across the form. If you haven't had a chance to read the threads throughout the Forum on lighting, Photographing subjects, as well as the many related Photo Resource Critiques, I know you would get a lot out of them. I think the most important thing you should be focusing on for your next painting is getting the best resource material you possibly can.

With regard to the cropping, I very much like the way the head is cropped and don't have a problem with it at all. I do agree, though, that the arms are cropped at a somewhat awkward spot. You can definitely set up your own photo session with a model, and then you'll be able to direct the placement of the arms and hands yourself.

The only other area that comes to mind that you might want to re-check, is the contrast in value and strong color saturation in the mouth. The dark line above the upper lip is probably created more by the flash than anything else. In virtually every other lighting situation, the upper lip line canal will be a plane that lifts upward (especially in a child her age), and will catch light more than the upper lip will. In a more natural light setting you would also not see the strong color and high value inside the mouth.

Best wishes,

Rochelle,

In reality she's leaning over the back of a couch. I agree that my interpretation of it didn't work out so well. I had some difficulty with it. Initially it was a pinkish color, and my husband said it looked like the girl was, well, throwing up! :bewildere Hopefully my next interpreted background will work out better. I mostly wanted to practice on her face for this one. Thanks for your comments.


Michelle,

Thanks for your comments on skintones, they mean a lot to me. And for pointing out the high contrast problems, I'll give that more thought next time. Yeah, the arms are weird, I didn't know if I could get away with it, I guess not. :)


Chris,

I've learned a lot from your book, in particular I love how you incorporate varying colors throughout the face. Initially I tried to create her face displaying the raw colors like you did in your portrait of Eric, but ended up blending too much and more just matching her true skin color.

You're right about taking my own photos. There are many kids in my neighborhood whose parents would love to have their portrait done, I'm just not confident enough yet in getting good photos to paint from. My husband and I did go out on a photo-shoot at the park last weekend, testing different lighting conditions, but the results were less than great. We'll try it again this weekend.

I didn't even notice the problems with the mouth. Thanks for pointing them out.

Holly, there's a great book listed on this site that I have and highly recommend. It's called:
Professional Secrets for Photographing Children by Douglas Allen Box. (If you use this link, Cynthia, who runs SOG, gets a small commission from Amazon.)

I like it because it offers a simple, non-technical approach to posing and lighting kids for portrait photography. He uses only a minimum of equipment and often works with just window light or outdoor light. The book includes easy to understand lighting diagrams and some great suggestions as to how to get kids to pose well, (also a very important part of the process!)

Thanks for the book tip Michele, I just picked it up.