Please Help
 

First I must say I am an amateur and by no means feel remotely adequate to post in this forum. Having said that I will venture forth. Attached is the very first human portrait of my (non) career as a painter. I have absolutely no formal training and I am sure it shows. Previous to this I have painted pets, namely my own and the pets of close friends. I have sold a few paintings only because a restauranteer once hung some of my pieces in his establishment (I'm sure for the lack of the means to purchase more appropriate decor).

On to my dilemma... Karina is the niece of my husband and she is 1200 miles away so the painting is done from a single photo that I believe is a school portrait. The photo shows a light background and I opted for a soft resting place for her arms rather that the plaster pillar in the reference photo. I feel that the darkness of shadow under her chin and her hair is too stark against the light background. Also her clothing seems to need darkening to complete the "feel" I have of this picture. I didn't finish her hands because I was so dissapointed with the rest of the picture. I would like to know how to repaint these areas without having a painted-around look. The hair agaist the light backround has a hard edge (thanks, Chris Saper) and I don't seen to be able to blend it without the head growing bigger.

Any additional critiques are very welcome. Again I am embarassed to share my woeful little picture with such great artists (even in the anonymous genre of cyberspace). By the way, I shot this picture with my Sony digital (great for photos of jewelry) and a true-color Ott-lite for lighting (I hope it translates).

(16 x 12 oil on Canson Canva-paper)

Sandy,

My first impression when the image opened was that the head was too big, which you also alluded to regarding the shaping and blending of the hair. It's a tough call without seeing the photo (perhaps you could post that, too), because childrens' heads are often proportionately large just as a developmental characteristic. However, I just printed out a 6x6 copy of the image, and then a 5x5, then pasted the smaller head onto the larger body and I thought the proportions seemed more correct. Have another look at the photo and check this out.

So if the head's too large, what to do? The facial features are rather well done (the irises in the eyes look a bit large, you might double-check that), though you're hampered by the "school photo" absence of shadow shapes in the features and hair that would help describe form. Not much you can do about that. It may well be that some tweaking here and there will give you that 10-15% reduction in the headsize without completely re-doing the head. I do think the hair shape has gotten too wide on the viewer's right, which itself is built on the disproportionate sizes of the sides of the face. (See how considerably farther away the right (viewer's) side of the face is from the centerline of the features, than the left side?)

The distance between the mouth and the bottom of the chin seems quite long to me, and a tiny bit lopsided (the "corner" on the viewer's left is lower than on the other side). If you can take away a bit of that length, it will factor into the overall reduction in size of the head.

Try some of that, and after you're satisfied with the head size, you can reconsider the hand size -- right now the hands look too small in relation to the head.

That knitting together of hair and background can be difficult to accomplish, but before you fuss with that too much, make sure the overall shape of the hair is correct. Paint some of the background colour into the hair shape until that shape is not only the correct size but has some interesting variation in line (rather than a straight fall from the top of the head to the ends of the hair -- even if that's the way it appears in the photo). You can soften the edge a number of ways, most of which will be discovered through experiment, but try making a small zig-zag down the area where the shapes come together and then with a clean brush, lightly pull it down the zig-zag to gently blend the colour. [The paint on both shapes must be wet in order for this to work.] Also, consider a common optical quality where two different value areas meet, that a dark area tends to lighten ever so slightly just as it approaches the light area, and the light area tends to darken ever so slightly just as it approaches the dark area. (This helps create the appearance that one shape is slipping in behind the other, rather than just meeting it and stopping.)

I do think that you would also benefit considerably by getting some more colour into this piece, but I'll leave that to folks with a better eye for that than I have.

No need to feel shy about posting early work. Every artist here has been through the sometimes frustrating work of mastering the fundamentals. But even a three-chord guitarist can sing around the campfire, while beginning to steal licks from others who just have been pickin' longer.

Best wishes,
Steven

Dear Sandy,

First, welcome to the Forum. I think you should feel very pleased with this first effort.You show strong drawing skills and a good eye to critiquing your own work, which can be so difficult!

With regard to the relative hand/head sizing, I think it would be much easier to resize the hands, since you have a very good start with the head. Steven, good eye on the chin, which would help reduce the overall sense of size. When I measure (of course this is the well-known and marginally respected method of "post-it-on-the monitor") it seems to me that the eyes are about halfway between the top of the skull and the chin, which would typically be a standard measurement for an adult head. For kids, however, there is a relatively larger proprtion of space above the eyes...most pronounced in infancy, and gradually moving toward the center as the child matures. (See Roberta Carter Clark's "Painting Vibrant Children's Portraits" for an excellent dicussion on the relative sizing of heads and hands throughout childhood). With regard to the edges, you have placed soft hairline edges against the forehead on our left, so I know you can do them elsewhere, on the outside silhouette as well as the bangs.

A parting thought, which I may have posted elsewhere: when I was just starting pastel work I took a workshop with Doug Dawson, who said, upon looking at my portfolio, "Why would you accept such poor source material?" His comment changed my work dramatically (I also was working with school portraits) There are some terrific posts here on SOG on photographing and/or choosing photo resources that work with you rather than adding to an already difficult process.

I wish you the best, Chris

Sandy,
This is a good start. Don't be afraid to post your work and ask for suggestions. Asking questions is how you learn. I ask questions all the time ;)! Steven has given some wonderful advice and I wanted to add a little information. What struck me first were the proportions (head, hands, upperbody length). An excellent book is "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain." If you are beyond that book, "The Artist's Complete Guide to Facial Expressions," is another excellent book. Hope this helps, Renee

I am so glad to have found this forum. Thank you all for your support. Steven, I had such difficulty posting this first photo (Cynthia did it via e-mail attachment) that including the reference photo is not feasible at this time. I do have a (dinosaur) scanner, now only if I can find the software... I will work on this photo thing.

Every morning while having coffee on my porch, I paint in my mind. Actually putting paint to canvas (paper in this case) is procrastinated. I feel that all of my work must be "good" and therefore balk at starting. I have limited space for painting as I operate my business from home and available space is sparse. Therefore my work in progress is usually "out there" somewhere for visitors (and clients) to see. Even if I had a studio (with a door on it) my friends and family want to see what I am currently working on. I would be much more apt to paint freely if I didn't have this problem. Funny how creative process draws a crowd. No one ever wants to "see" what I am working on in my professional life!

Now on to the picture in question. Shadow and light are definately distorted in photos (this I have learned from you kind folks) and because I don't know what should be added or omited I just paint what I see. I feel like a copy-cat, meaning that I copy what I see. I agree with all the points taken in your post (in fact, you are much kinder to the picture that I) and as soon as I screw up the courage I will render the suggested fixes.

Chris, thank you again for your kind e-mail. If it wasn't 6 AM I'd be heading out the door to buy the book you suggested. I most want to paint children and getting the proportions right is critical. I have no live models (no children of my own) so photos are the best I can do right now. Taking my own photos is a great suggestion. I will be lurking at the park with a camera soon...actually I have a few friends with kids.

The critique is SO helpful as my friend and family think everything I do is "good". Of course no one in my circle had advanced beyond stick people and barrel shaped horses...

Renee, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain is one of my favorite books. Thanks for the suggestion on the facial expression book. Building a good library is one of my goals.