Little Boy
 

Hi. This is my first thread here in the critique forum and is of a portrait of a little boy called 'Nathan'. The painting is 14 x 10 inches and in Oil and on a gesso primed canvas board. I have deliberately left the clothing in a roughened state to help the facial portrait stand out, although i`m not sure if this works or not. This is not a formal portrait as such.

Would love any thoughts you may have on the painting and have included the source ref if that helps. Please be as brutal as can and excuse the quality of the photo, a little overexposed.

Thankyou.

Chris Blight

Hi Chris,
good to see you in action.

I like the fresh expression of this tough little boy.

The light uniform background works well with the bright colors of the clothing.

The one thing that I would like to be "brutal" about is that his nose ends exactly in the edge of his cheek. I would suggest to let the nose be the dominant part. Either by graying out the cheek or taking it a little back.

And I also feel that the contour at the eye lid (over his left eye) should be more soft. Look at it squinting.

The values at the neck could be darker.

When looking at the reference you see that the lightest skin values are at the nose, cheek and ear, the parts that stick out. Everything else is more or less darker.

I like your fresh approach, Allan

Suggestions
 

Hello,

It looks like you are really close to being done! Just a few finishing touches would make an improvement. I think the suggestions above are good. The nose is slightly short and that stands out the most to me. The upper lip could use a small shadow to set the teeth back away from the curve of the lip.

As I flipped back and forth between your subject and painting I also noticed the top of the head could use a little attention. The roundness of his head, where the hair meets the scalp could use a little more tweaking. It is a little flat where his hair stands up in the back. One idea I have been working on is looking how the light falls in patterns (when dealing with hair). And then think about how those patterns define the round/oval head underneath.

Don't despair! It is good and it is almost done.

Lara Cannon

Thanks both Lara and Alan, good suggestions and will definitely look at that soon. Someone also mentioned that the background might look better a little offwhite, and as I hadn`t decided what colour to do that I will try that.

Will try and do an update soon.

Chris

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the Forum! I like the way you handle paint.

Two quick suggestions: I would darken the value of the shadow under the boy's chin, and I would gray down the color intensity of his eyes. I would start with a neutral blue/gray and add a strong blue only if necessary.

Hi Chris,

I welcome you too! I love the punchy colors that are not dependent on the muted ones in the photo. I also love your easy casual style.

Forgive me but I am giving you one of my typical heavy-handed Photoshop analyses. The weakest part of your portrait is in the likeness and facial proportions. I scaled the photo to match the painting, and let the images speak for themselves. If you have not scaled your photo to the same size as your painting yet, I highly recommend that you do. This will help immensely to keep proportions in check.

To match the scale, I took the measurement from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin. The eyes, nose, and mouth are set too high, although the ear is just right.

I think the eyes are too dark and harsh a blue, although in general I like your interpretation of color.

Thanks for sharing this. I hope I am not being too hard on you.

Garth

Right. I hope you don`t mind but I`ve done a Photoshop paintover to try and make certain of what you are all saying and see if they work, including darkening under the chin and the eyes and a bit more work on the hair. On the anatomy issue, definitely right and something I might use in the future. But on this occasion I`m going to leave the painting as it is because it isn`t that important that I get it correct to the original picture, but a good idea for future portraits.

Please let me know if I`ve got it right. And the harder the critique the better, as far as I`m concerned. So much to learn.

Chris

It does look even better than before, Chris. They will love it.

Garth

Thanks Garth and everyone who took the time to comment. I`ve painted the photoshop adjustments now and post the final image.

Thanks again.

Chris