I really need help with this one!

[Elizabeth Schott]

The lady that owns the hair salon I frequent offered to display one of my pieces for advertising. I offered to do her daughters. She provided me with the following photograph. One she must have used the flash from ****, two - they have on tons of makeup, three - the clothes didn't work on the one, four - there are shadows in the background going everywhere. I re read Chris' book on the Kelvin scale and could figure it out, figured it was 12000 on the beach. Proceeded with cool light and warm shadows.

[Elizabeth Schott]

I thought they started looking ghostly and didn't like it at all. So being the unseasoned professional that I am, I just added more color here and there, tried to lessen the effects of the flash, and changed the shirt to a complementary green. Then brought the black shirt (which I made mostly dark blue) into the background right of the second figure.

Please remember this work is in progress.

[Elizabeth Schott]

Sorry, the digital shot looks a tad blue.

I am I totally off base here? Is it salvagable? Actually I tried to prime my own board, didn't like how it was grabbing the pastel, so this is the second one. Here is the detail:

[Chris Saper]

Dear Elizabeth,

Thanks for the opportunity to see and critique your work in process. I will try to be helpful overall, and also to spend a bit more time, to the extent I can, on your color temperature questions.

Resource photo. It's hard to imagine a more difficult resource. The photo was taken with what was probably a point-and-shoot camera (yep, flash attached), but one whose lens results in a fish-eye distortion across the entire photo. Not only is the flash a problem, the distortion gives a picture of two beautiful girls subordinated to the least flattering aspect of their upper arms. Their big grins make the eyes squint.

When I first started to paint, I studied with the pastel painter, Doug Dawson. At the end of the workshop, he reviewed my portfolio. His single comment to me was "Why would you accept such poor resource material?" There is nothing he could have said that would have made a greater, more postive impact on every painting I have done since.

Composition. I think there are a number aways to work with variations of this composition (a portrait I have seen comes to mind, and if I can locate it I will post it later). However, I think that the nature of this photo will not allow you to make major changes in the composition. There is an eye-trap in the sort of rhomboid-shaped space between the girls' heads; moreover, it's right in the center of the canvas! The only way to deal with this here, I think, is to darken the value of the space, compared to the outer surrounding negative space (like the sky-holes that landscape painter use), and make use of some significant lost edges in both girls' hair, so that the hair and the small space become more integrated.

Edges. You have some good edge variety, especially in the light green shirt and facial silhouette of the girl on our right. The edge area that you could make the greatest imrovement in would be in the hair. With both girls, the outside edges of the hair have very crisp edges, which gives the impression that their heads are really connected, rather than resting together; it also gives a cut-out look to the figures, since the hair and background can't really be integrated with such sharp edges. The hairline area where the forehead and temples meet the hair, is likewise shown with a sharper edge that you would want. I realize that to some extent this is just an artifact of your source material; this also shows up in the sharp edges of the lips against the teeth.

Value. As I squint at your painting, Elizabeth, there are only really two major values: the dark shirt and hair on the girl on our left, and everything else. Your instinct to add more color behind the girl on our right was a good one, because it also added some value relief to the right two-thirds of the picture area. With a flash photograph like this, there will always be severe value distortion (beyond the value problems of film taken even in the best of conditions!) A quick note on the teeth: for them to sit inside the lips, and to curve back along the dental arch toward the jaw, they need value differentiation, too. It is patently impossible to find the subtle value shifts that are necessary to indicate three-dimensional form in a photo like this; you're left with having to invent them in some way. I think it it so very helpful to create a little three-value thumbnail sketch before you even start, so that you can know what type of pattern will be pleasing, and that will support your center of interest.

Color.. First color temperature. Yikes! In fact, your light source is not any natural light at all, it is a flash, and it's coming from the front. Flashbulbs are usually about 5400-6000 degrees Kelvin. That is, the manufacturers want to try to mimic "neutral lighting" as closely as possible. The flashbulbs are usually very equal in the amount of red, yellow and blue components they yield. When the color temperature is relatively more neutral, there is relatively less difference in color temperature shift between light and shadow. Conversely, when a light temperature is VERY warm the shadows will be, relatively speaking again, very cool; same with VERY cool light temperature, relatively VERY warm shadow. RELATIVE temperature is much more important that any concrete Kelvin number.

Yes, the color temperature on the beach was probably somewhere around 12,000 degrees Kelvin, but remember that this refers to blue sky, not direct sunlight (take a peek on p.24 of my book). The cool light at 12,000 K is light that is reflected onto the subject from the sky, (shielded from direct sunlight) and would be similar in relative temperature to the classic studio north light. The sun is never blue; it's light just differs relatively in temperatures of warm color. The temperature of light is what creates color unity.

That being said, you are still faced with a photo that has no color unity. So, yes, you still need to have a little differentiation between temperature in shadow and temperature in light. But the problem is that there is no real believable (in my opinion) way to support what is happening anywhere else.

Drawing. I have left this to last, but only because your drawing skills are strong! Your likeness are very good, proportionate to what you see in the photo. Drawing is the heart of all of this portrait work, and you are so far ahead of the game by having good skills in this arena. The only limit I can see here is that which is created by this photo, where it is not possible to see value well.

I suppose my point is pretty obvious by now. This is a dreadful source photo! Painting a portrait is SO hard already, and every possible difficulty is compounded with a photo like this.

Elizabeth, I do hope you don't find this note discouraging. I can see in your other post that your work is so much stronger. How about finding a better source photo?

My very best wishes,

[Elizabeth Schott]

Chris, thank you, oh thank you!

You are so right about the source photo, but my hands were really tied on this one. She took at least 3 months to get me this photo, her daughters live in different states and there is nothing I can do. I have to at least make this look good, or I can't have her hang it - her salon is very upscale/downtown, but then again she is a hairdresser (not meant to insult anyone) so the girls have chemically whitened teeth - I tried adding some gray and yellows, but obviously not enough, their hair, I am sure is dyed, plus with so much makeup on I can't even tell the true color of their lips.

I guess I be arty, try and create a miracle then see if she'll let me hang a different one, but you know she's gonna love it.

[Elizabeth Schott]

Okay, I am not kidding here... I spent the afternoon making changes with Chris' notes above and her book in my lap. Took some creative license with this.

[Elizabeth Schott]

This is the close up. I hope these digital shots are showing up okay on everyone's browser.

[Sharon Knettell]

I agree totally with Chris on this one. Never work with bad source material, no matter how tempting the circumstances. You are not there to explain the reasons later; the pictures, as it should be, stand on their own. You do your talent a disservice. Find another hairdresser.