Posthumous portrait feedback desired

[Brenda R. Robson]

This is a bit slanted and has a bit of glare but I think it is ok for critiquing.

This are parents who have passed away and I am hoping for some feedback for my first WIP posting.

Thanks!
Brenda

[Allan Rahbek]

Hi Brenda,
You seem to be comfortable with drawing from judging your fathers head.
It also looks as this is a combination of two references and that is why you will have to harmonize the two figures later, since the front figure will influence the back one with a shadow, depending on the light setting.

I would recommend that you choose a warm shadow color and cool highlights. That would indicate that they are positioned indoor, looking out.

You should consider to soften the edges that are in the darkest areas, like the shoulders of your farther and the back of his hair, Leaving only the front of the hair with highlights.

The front of his head should be cool highlighted and not yellow.

Looking forward to your progress.

Allan

[Brenda R. Robson]

Thanks so much,
good advice.

I should've mentioned this is a commission, they aren't my parents.

It is 2 different photos and the dad is only a 35 MM snapshot. The mom is larger but very washed out and sepia toned. They are from El Salvadore.

He looks even more stern than I painted him. The mother is almost sad so it's quite a challenge. I guess it won't look like your standard smiling snapshot though.

I'll post as I go, any other ideas are appreciated.
Brenda

[Renee Price]

Hi Brenda,

The painting of the father looks anatomically correct so far and you've got a good start to the modeling. On my monitor, which may be reading wrong, it looks like the lights/halftones/shadows are all very warm, and you're relying too much on value changes to express form and have neglected using chroma changes to give the head solidity. The general rule of thumb is that if you have warm light then you have cool shadows, and the reverse, if you have cool light you have warm shadows. There are several areas that can challenge that 'rule' such as local color and the color of reflected light, but warm light/cool shadows and cool light/warm shadows are good places to start.

The drawing accuracy is the hard part, and that looks pretty good. Any changes you choose to make now won't be very difficult.

You've got a great start and I'm looking forward to watching the progress!

Renee Price

[Alexandra Tyng]

Brenda,

I just had a thought to add: in order to make the two figures seem more connected, you could have his hand on her arm. Finding someone to pose for this and making sure the lighting is right would be your two major challenges.