Moria (Girl with a crystal earring)

Marvin Mattelson · 08-23-2004, 12:39 AM

This is the final incantation demo I developed during the two week workshop I just returned from in Atlanta. Moria is a belly dancer who also models for artists. It was a real joy to paint her. To me the success of a painting rests on the artist's ability to capture light and life. I mostly focused on her head (it was a portrait workshop after all.) I do wish I had a little more time in order to do some additional work on the rest of her.

I documented the entire progression of the painting and will be posting it in the not too distant future. For now, here are some shots of the final painting.

Joan Breckwoldt · 08-23-2004, 10:01 AM

Marvin,

Another amazing portrait by you! I am looking forward to seeing the photos of the in-progress stages, thank you in advance for posting them.

Joan

Denise Hall · 08-23-2004, 11:51 PM

Marvin,

It's hard to believe you paint like this with a throng of people asking you a question a second - it's beautiful and I know the model wants it!

Denise

Marvin Mattelson · 08-24-2004, 12:16 AM

I think the color of these may be a little off so I'm reposting them Sharon. The color of the photos I take with my Nikon D70 appear much too yellow when I bring them into Photoshop, so I may have over corrected them to try to compensate.TYhey aren't really blueish. I guess I've still got plenty of fiddling around to do. Also I have a Mac so I want them to look good on PC's as well. The weird thing is that they print out perfectly on my printer.

Denise, I've done so many demos that I'm pretty immune to distractions The only thing that does distract me is if someone is close to me and in my peripheral vision. At this point I'm not interested in selling my demo but someone in the workshop did want to purchase it.

Janel Maples · 08-24-2004, 12:27 AM

Marvin,

I am so sorry I missed this in person. How I would have loved to have been watching over your shoulder on this one.

I was ready to go to bed but I find myself studying this. I keep going back to the close up you posted. It looks like I could reach in and actually follow the form of her face with my finger.

I love it. I absolutely love it.

Holly Snyder · 08-24-2004, 10:47 AM

The increased color saturation (and sharpening?) really brings her to life. I particularly like the variation in colors that you have in her face, more reds, blues and yellows than I've seen in your other pieces. Beautiful. Does the background contain blue? If so, is some of that same blue mixture on the cheek and neck in shadow and under her eyes? Or is that a mixture of black and white?

Given that we have similar Nikon digital cameras, it's interesting that your digital images appear to yellow. Mine are always too red (warm) on my monitor and printer, and I have to increase the blue and green channels in the levels in Photoshop, as well as decrease the red saturation. It can be so frustrating when prints don't match the monitor. I seem to remember that you calibrated your monitor with a hardware/software package, but the package didn't work on your printer?

Holly

Joan Breckwoldt · 08-24-2004, 02:38 PM

Hi Marvin,

Just out of curiosity, what value would you assign her forehead or cheek? And what value to the shadow side of her face or under her neck? Somehow you have made her seem so lifelike and 3 dimensional, but the value range within her face doesn't seem so large . . . at least not when compared to the dark value of her hair.

I guess I thought this type of 3-dimensionality was accomplished through a wide range of values, but you seem to have done it without that large range. You'll probably tell me you did this with changes in temperature? That's what I keep reading on the forum, but I am yet to understand how this can work.

Thank you for any light you can shed on this,

Joan