Sara again
 

Ok, I have spent the afternoon with Sara, I think she is tired of me.
I think these are better than the original ones. There were a few full body that I liked, but I think I want to stick with head and shoulders for now. These are my favorite so far. Do any jump out that would or wouldn't make a better painting and why?

The second one is my favorite, since it has the best lighting, to my mind, anyway. In the first one the two competing light sources (one natural, one artificial) are setting up some complicated color patterns that may cause you problems. In the third and fourth one the light is very flat.

I like that one too Michelle, and I liked this one also, but am not sure about the way she is leaning forward. We took so many of them today, and I'm still experimenting with this camera that it is taking me forever to go through them all.

Michelle, I came back in this morning and looked at those four and began to see things through your eyes instead of mine. I guess having a personal relationship with her was clouding my judgement some, the two bottom ones I now see as flat instead of good pictures of "Sara" if that makes sense.

I got hundreds of pictures of her yesterday since her mother was kind enough to drive her five hours for me to play with. I'm going to use these to practice on with all this spare time I have. (yeah, right)

I think I have lots of nice pictures of her outside. It was the inside that I struggled so hard with. Finding a way to get her lit properly was a challenge and one I need to learn how to handle better.

I really want to try one of these inside head shots. I see what you are saying about the two light sources, are you shying away from this because you think it would not make for a decent portrait, or because it might be complicated to pull off? If it is the latter, maybe that would be a good thing since my main purpose for these IS for practice. Here are a few more of these.

I don't know what I did when I resized these, they look very hazy on my monitor now.

I am painting on a interior figure with both cold and warm lighting. It is a bit blurred because of bad lighting conditions that day. I just had to get something. I wish mine was half as good as yours.

So I think that your photos are perfectly ideal for a practice project. I would choose the second last, but without the furniture. She is flirting with the posing situation and the shawl is a dream come true for a painter.

Allan

Mary,

I remember you doing pretty well in this spot with a reflector.

I would keep a black and white version nearby. Once you get your palette established you can drop the color version and just refer to the values.

My vote is with Allan's: I like the color scheme in the penultimate photo and I like the way the pose emphasizes her side profile and chin, which to my eye (not having seen her in person, of course) is a distinguishing characteristic and would establish her individuality. And how about setting up a simple dummy and painting the shawl from life?

And while I'm making more work for you, I would try to find a good graceful shot of her hands and do a seperate study of those for practice. She has wonderful, young-woman hands.