Kaitlyn in the garden

Susan Ballinger · 02-15-2003, 12:46 AM

I finally feel confident enough about my latest painting to post it for critique. It is 24 x 18 inches, oil on canvas.

It will be hanging in an office with fluorescent lighting, which unfortunately has made the skin tones more yellowish than they appeared in my home.

I've been improving dramatically with each painting I've done, and this site has taught me so much!

My biggest concern while I was working on this was that perhaps the background was too busy. I hope that the white dress has drawn more attention to the subject than the flowers and fountain.

Thanks for any critiques!

Susan

Susan Ballinger · 02-15-2003, 12:52 AM

This is a close up of her head.

Michele Rushworth · 02-16-2003, 12:02 AM

The head and figure in general seem rather flat. You might want to check out this link to an explanation I gave in another thread about achieving form and roundness in a head through control of values:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...&threadid=1863

Can you post your reference photo for the figure?

I agree that your background is too distracting. There are several things that attract attention to any area of a painting. High contrast, saturated colors and sharp edges are the first three that come to mind.

All of them are in the background in this image and none of them are in the figure. That's why the background is too "busy", as you put it.

Otherwise, it's a sweet image with a cute little pouty expression on the girl!

Susan Ballinger · 02-16-2003, 12:42 AM

Unfortunately, I no longer have the photo references at home. This is actually my daughter. I did the painting for my mom to hang at her business. She's a CPA, so since this is tax season a lot of her clients will be coming in and seeing my artwork on her wall. I can see if she can scan some of the photos for me. I gave them all back to her. It was a compilation of a few different photos.

Thank you for the link! I'll have to try the value finder.

Is there anything I can do to make the background less distracting without doing a complete overhaul?

Susan

Peter Jochems · 02-19-2003, 02:42 PM

To make the background less distracting, overpainting the red accents in the background with less saturated colour (pink or reddish brown) would help I think.

This is an ambitious portrait of several elements or objects combined into one image. Why not focus on practicing how to draw or paint a face ? And go on from there.

greetings,
peter

Michele Rushworth · 02-19-2003, 03:52 PM

I agree with Peter. You might want to concentrate on head and shoulders portraits for a while and perfect that. This face is very sweet, but the form lacks volume and more care could be paid to the shapes and rendering the way the light falls on the forms and features.

Study the head and shoulders portraits of artists on this site whose work you like. Then, down the road, work on three-quarter poses like this one. After you've perfected that, tackle elaborate backgrounds.

Leslie Ficcaglia · 02-19-2003, 07:38 PM

What strikes me most about this painting is the very realistic and convincing way the statue in the fountain is depicted. There you have a wider range of values, with nice darks and lights and an excellent sense of form and volume. You may have felt freer to experiment with this element of the painting because it wasn't as "important" as the child, but it's a nice job. Treating the child's face and arms the same way could have made it a stronger painting.

Susan Ballinger · 02-19-2003, 11:44 PM

I think the statue worked out better because it only involved two colors mixed together. I'm having a more difficult time of modeling form with different colors. I don't have any formal training in this sort of thing, so everything I've learned has been from this site and the artists on it.

Susan

Michele Rushworth · 02-20-2003, 12:10 AM

Susan, one of the frequent contributors here, Sharon Knettell, recommends an exercise that I think would help you greatly also.

Get a good reproduction from the web of Vermeer's painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring". Print it out in black and white, large enough to fill a whole sheet of paper. Then paint a copy of it.

It's a beautiful example of fully-rounded modelling. After you've mastered that, try copying it in color.

All the old masters were trained by copying even older masters' paintings in the museums. It's a time honored tradition.

Susan Ballinger · 02-20-2003, 09:11 AM

I know which painting you're talking about. I'll have to find it and get started! Thanks!

Susan