[Chris Saper]

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