Reference photo critique

[Deborah Barton]

I'm very much a novice at this, but thought a different perspective might be useful. I found this photo of my son on my computer (which he uses from time to time). He shot it himself with my digital camera (Canon Powershot S50). The mood and composition inspired me to paint this watercolor portrait. To prepare the source photo, I opened it in Photoshop and replaced the distracting background clutter with a gradient.

[Karin Wells]

Deborah, Your original photo has a good value range that your painting doesn't reflect. Unfortunately you have lost your shadow/light patterns that made this a strong initial image.

Again, it is often useful to be able to see in black and white. Computers are such a useful tool for this.

[Allan Rahbek]

Hi Deborah,

Could it be that your watercolor has been stretched? The whole thing looks wider than the reference photo. It would be easyer to compare the to if they were seen as you saw them when painting.

Allan