McNutt Girls
 

This is a 40" x 40" soft pastel on gessoed hard board panel. After some working with the gesso to get just the right surface, I think I'm in love with this board! It is durable, flexable ( I used the 1/8" thickness) and, if I make a mistake, I simply brush it off, wash it off, or add another layer of gesso.

Anyway, back to the portrait... I underpainted the background to help the undertones.

The rock is not yet finished and would like a critique of the overall piece.

Just a side note, the client (their dad) wanted the background to be less focused and looser than the original photograph shows.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi Julianne,
I like the grouping of the two sisters, and the overall composition of the piece. If I were to comment on one thing, it would be that the value range of the older sister's face and arms is quite narrow. It looks as though you changed the values to pull her face out of the shadow. OK, but it may give the portrait more life and impact to extend the value range.

This is very nice, Julianne; I especially like the way you've opened their eyes a little more and also given the little sister a more pleasant expression while still retaining the likeness. The treatment of the texture of the girls' skirts is also impressive, but my only concern is the way those white dresses seem to draw the eye, especially the skirts because they present themselves so much in the foreground. I don't know if you could make them darker or somehow subdue them in another way.

You might also want to do some more modeling of the planes of the girls' faces to make them seem a little less flat. The arms, hands and feet appear to have more dimensionality because you've used more darks and lights to show how the body turns into and away from the light.

I'll bet the parents are just thrilled with this so far. Have they seen it?