My Mom
 

Hi,

This is a 16x20 painting of my Mom. I hope to show it to her (on the web) as a surprise for Mother's day. Please feel free to let the critiques rip! Marvin has very kindly critiqued a couple of my paintings in the past, and one thing I always appreciated is he never seemed to hold back what he really thought. Sometimes hard to hear, but the best way to learn.

Cheers,

Holly

Ooh! I like this one very much. The soft choice of colours are very plesant. It gives the impression that your mom also is very plesant and kind, and I

I believe this is a bit too good for critiques, unless of course it doesn't look like your mom, that is. ;) I'm sure it does! This belongs in the Unveilings. Great job.

I certainly can't find anything to critique in this one, it is a very beautiful, sensitive painting.
As Hanna has already pointed out, you have aged her very gracefully without rendering a vast amount of detail. The flesh tones are very life-like and lively. I also like how her blouse matches her flesh color. I think I even see some reflection of the blouse onto her right cheek/hair. Great color harmony here! Could you discuss your palette a bit?

Beautiful and sensitive. My only suggestion wold be to have less variation of values in the shadow areas, in particular her cheek. This will further strengthen an already powerful effect.

Lovely. I am very sure she will love it.

Hi Hannah - I did take artistic liberties with this one. She looks at least 10 years younger than in real life, but I don't think she'll mind : ).

Thanks Jimmie - But there's always something to be learned, and I can only hope to always be learning it! True to form, Marvin (who has an amazing eye), gave me a pointer. If I'd posted in the Unveilings, I probably wouldn't have learned that little bit of info.

Mike - I think part of the why this works is it is a very simple palette, with a complementary color harmony (red/pink and green/blue), with the red/pink dominant. Can you tell I have Chris Saper's book? I used alizarin crimson, terra rosa, yellow ochre, ultramarine blue, burnt sienna (just a touch), burnt umber, and flake white.

Marvin - Thanks for the suggestion!

Thanks all,

Holly

Lovely portrait, Holly. I can't see anything else to critique. I remember you were working in acrylics; you seem to have transitioned to oils rather successfully. Great job!

Sincerely,

Holly, it's so good to see your work back on the Forum. This is a very beautiful painting - I can tell that you're getting much softer edges with oil than you did with acrylics.

Two things I especially like about this painting are your Mother's hair and her facial expression.

I personally dislike burnt sienna in flesh tones (try Gamblin's Transparent Red Oxide instead) but you've managed this well.

What a wonderful Mother's Day gift!

Thanks Josef, Richard and Linda for your kind words. Linda, I have been thinking of trying similar colors (either the Gamblin Asphaltum that I think Whitaker uses, or Rembrandt transparent oxide brown that Schmidt and Weistling use) to replace burnt sienna and burnt umber. I don't like the way burnt sienna and burnt umber "sink in" the next day, and I'm hoping that these other colors don't do that?

Regards,

Holly