Alla prima
 

Cynthia, thank you so much for adding this section!!!

Ok, I'm taking a dive here - 2.5 hours alla prima 11x14 (I can post that, right?)

Maria

Hi Maria,

Nice fresh start on this topic.

I like your color harmony.

Assume that you painted from live model, are you going to take it further?

Since this is a critique section I will give it a try.: You should look at her left arm, it looks too short. Of cause it will be shorter than the right arm, due to the perspective, but when looking at the picture from a distance it looks like a distortion.

Then the values and shape in the head and neck. It would not be possible that the value on her left cheek is that light in the light direction as it is indicated on the body.

The ear, how would it be as light in the shadow as on the lit side?

Maybe it would help if you painted the model without the necklace at first and added it later when the body structure is solved.

Allan

I'm pleased at this new addition to the section as well! And although I sense a little trepidation on Cynthia's part, I'm confident that we shall see some excellent and tasteful work come through here.

Which segues into...

Maria! Nicely done for a fairly speedy alla prima! I really like the handling of values on the torso. The left side (model's right) is really coming to the front of the picture plane convincingly.

I do agree with Allan in re: the left cheek value (too similar to the right), as well as the ear. I reserve judgment on the arm, though. And the necklace? Well - if I had done this within the same time constraints, I would never have gotten to it (I'm slow :bewildere )! So I take my hat off to you for getting it in there!

Allan also points out your good color harmony, which even moves across your background tones - very good, indeed. However, her hair is the only thing that falls out of this harmony, as it is too cool overall. Note in the closeup how the lighter parts of the hair are going blue due to what looks like a black/white mixture. Add some raw umber to the black in the light plane, and you'll be able to pull highlights in a neutral-warm instead of gray-blue.

These are small, but fairly important, yet not that much more work! You got the majority of work in there quite well and it has a vibrant quality to it, giving the model real "character" as opposed to an academic study.

Allan and Rob,

Thank you very much for taking time to critique. I'm making notes for myself.

The problem with light here is mainly caused by very bad lighting situation in this open studio - they have fluorescent over head lighting and several sources of direct light on a model in the same time. Sometimes you get more light on a head than on a body etc... I'm not happy about it, but others don't care as it does not affect non-realist representation as much :)

I'm not planning to work on it more and consider this a lesson learned. It was my first experience with long poses and I had no idea what it takes to get it to more or less finished state under the time constraint , so simply rushed through.

Best regards,
Maria