[Chris Saper]

Dear Linda,

Welcome to the Forum! You have said you plan to be a full time painter over the next year, so I hope you don't mind my taking you at your word, because that's going to come up more quickly than you can imagine! So please forgive me for cutting right to the chase here. You have excellent drawing skills and control over your paint already, so I wanted to make some observations about your process and early decisions.

Composition and value massing are the key elements that I think you should consider in future work. (To illustrate this point I've attached a rough sort of diagram.)

In this painting, you have major compositional challenges going on, primarily, I think, because there is no clear value scheme going on. If you squint at the painting, you'll see that there are a lot of small islands of dark - little eye-traps that fail to support, and actually work against your center of interest, which I am sure is meant to be this young woman's face. Notwithstanding the very observant points Michael has raised about photographic distortion, the network of bannisters reads as an almost hieroglyphic-type pattern that is isolated from the rest of the painting, and constitutes a bunch of arrows that actually lead the eye away from the focal point.

The darkest dark, (which in the overall value scheme you have going) is the swirled wooden pattern in the chair, which works as strongly as the bannister to remove the viewer from your center of interest.

The somewhat lesser dark that forms an outlined island around the lampshade acts as an eye-trap, noticeable, but visually there's nowhere to go after coming to rest upon it. There is another smaller island created by the (I assume) left edge of the round coffee table upon which the lamp sits.

There are other eye-traps that occur as a result of the negative spaces in the painting, which I would guess happened without intent. In the lower left of the picture, the swirl in the chair's wooden armrest comes close enough to the edge of the canvas to cause the eye to focus there, and to act as a tangent. I see a long vertical line along the left edge, which may be some artifact of the photo of the painting, or it may be part of the architecture. If the latter, you would want to get rid of it.

How do you deal with these things and avoid them in the next painting? Here are some thoughts:

You were hired to paint this painting because your client believes you know better than he does. Don't disappoint him. If the notion of including the identity of architecture, as represented by the staircase, diminishes the painting, either find a way to integrate it so completely within your composition that it supports the painting as a whole, or tell him it can't be a part of the painting. Have him build a beautiful presentation case instead.

Review all the information on this Forum with regard to photographing your subject; there's a wealth of stuff here. Use the "search messages" function at the top of the page.

Plan your value scheme in advance. Try using a thumbnail sketch, forcing all your shapes into just three values. Connect your dominant values, as well as your subordinate values. Sprinkle in interest in values later as necessary to move the eye toward the center of interest in a visually pleasing way. Review all the information on this Forum regarding values, value massing, or composition.

Control your edges to help support your center of interest. Again, use the "search message" button.

I hope you will view this critique with the most sincere way in which it is meant. You are already ahead of the game with your skill in drawing, sense of color harmony, and control of the paint. As of now, you only have 11 months and 29 days, so no time to *****foot around.

Kindest regards,
Chris