Samantha

[Enzie Shahmiri]

This is Samantha, my latest work in progress and I need help with the shadow areas.

According to my notes,

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Original Black and White Reference Photo.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Closeup. She has one brown eye and one blue one, isn't that neat?!

[Lon Haverly]

Enzie, she is a girl after my own eyes! (heart) I am not fond of burnt sienna, and would have opted for some other color. But you used it well.

[Elizabeth Schott]

Enzie, I thought I would give you my feelings towards the composition and color. I won

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Lon and Beth, thank you so much for your comments. I haven

[Mike McCarty]

Hi Enzie,

If the painting is dry you should be able to experiment with glazing some darker values into the shaded areas.

You may be too focused on what you perceive to be a problem. When you restate the darker value to a shaded area, don't step back and focus only on what you have just done. Step back and look at the whole painting with a very general gaze.

Also, in this regard, if you just pick a single spot and created a darker value, you will have possibly changed the overall value scheme. What you have done may have been completely right but until you follow through on other areas it may look wrong.

I think your painting could use some of these darker values. I too struggle with this.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Mike,

My husband and daughter both agree with you about my being too focused on the shaded areas. They both think it looks good and recommend against darkening the shadows on her skin. I think it's time to work again on the background and the dress and re-check the values.

[Mike McCarty]

Enzie,

I actually think that most of the problem exists with the outdoor photo (I'm guessing outdoors). When you photograph outdoors, in the open, the light will wash out most of the values that you would like to have, giving a very homogeneous flat look. I think that if the photo had more of the darker values naturally, you would see them and paint them naturally.

Your perceived problem may be rooted not so much in your abilities as a painter, or even in your ability to see things correctly, but in what you have chosen to view.

Months ago, somewhere on this Forum, Karin Wells said (paraphrasing): "At this point I don't fret so much about how to paint as much as I do about what to paint". This is one of those pearls that sticks with me. In a sense we are like actors, our careers will be judged as much on our ability to pick parts, as on our ability to play them.

[Enzie Shahmiri]

Mike, you are so right about all the points you have made. I, too, like to be able to dictate what I like to paint and in what settings, but at this stage of the game, being humble and subjective is the order of the day.