Yellow dress

Nathan Cremer · 11-18-2002, 03:50 PM

This is a portrait I'm doing for my neighbor, of his little girl. It's a 24" x 18" pastel on Canson Mi-Tientes. The Snoopy dolls were added from separate photos per request. I'd like to post a close-up version if someone could tell me how to post multiple images.

This is my first post on this Forum, and I'm very excited to interact with all of you. I've been reading these for about two weeks now, and I can't wait to have my work critiqued. I need some fresh, experienced eyes to tell me how and where I can improve.

Nathan Cremer · 11-18-2002, 04:11 PM

Here is a detail of the face.

Jean Kelly · 11-20-2002, 01:43 AM

Nathan,

You must have a wonderful sense of humor! The fun on her face is infectious.

If you haven't read Hanna Larsson's teddy bear post yet, please check it out. The discussion concerns hard shadow edges. See if you'd like to soften them a little more.

I'm sure your neighbor will love and cherish this.

Jean

Nathan Cremer · 11-25-2002, 02:59 PM

Thank you, Jean, for you input. I tried to soften the face. I'm not sure if I accomplished it or not. I also changed the values of the background to help with the composition.

Nathan Cremer · 11-25-2002, 03:01 PM

Here is the revised close up.

Michele Rushworth · 11-25-2002, 08:02 PM

Nathan, I find that having four faces (the girl and the three snoopy dogs) in the painting is a bit distracting. It's especially difficult when the dogs have features with a very high level of contrast. You can begin to solve this problem by putting the big dog off to the right in deeper shadow.

Several things can be done to any part of a painting to make the eye glide over it and not arrest the viewer's attention as much as these dogs now do. Reducing the overall contrast of the dogs and greatly softening the edges of the dogs' eyes will help. Taking the values of the white bodies down a bit darker and making the eyes a medium grey will do it, if you're careful to make the white bodies still "read" as white.

I think you could keep the contrast/sharpness level of the dog on her lap pretty much as it is, but try to take as much attention away from the other stuffed animals as you can.

As for the main figure, can you post your reference? The gesture of her hands is very sweet and the skin tones seem quite good. The eyes seem a bit flat and that's why I was asking if we could see the reference.

Steven Sweeney · 11-25-2002, 08:25 PM

Nathan,

I agree that you

Nathan Cremer · 11-26-2002, 11:27 AM

First off, thank you for the response. And I agree with both of you. This was actually a poorly planned portrait. I had first painted the little girl and then added the dogs afterwards.

Unfortunately, I have already given it to my neighbor. Although, I think I'm going to take the image into Photoshop and make the suggested changes so that I can see how they affect it.

Feel free to make any more comments with the reference photo regarding likeness or anything else. Even though I no longer have the painting, I'll still soak in everyones' input.

Jean Kelly · 11-26-2002, 12:23 PM

Nathan, you're in good hands with Steven and Michele. Keep posting new work. I've enjoyed this one. I think I'm just a sucker for happy kids.

Jean

Michele Rushworth · 11-26-2002, 01:27 PM

Thanks for posting the reference. Was this a professional photographer's shot? I like the flowers and basket in the original photo. Did you change it so as to reduce the risk of copyright problems, if it wasn't your photo?

As for the likeness, I see two separate issues. The first is that the top of the head is too small, as is the chin, but by a lesser amount.

The second thing I see is that most of the forms need to be darker as they turn away from the viewer to the right. This will help overcome the flattening of the form I see.

Everything to the right of her right eye (from our perspective) needs to go down in value. The right side of her eyelid, her right temple, etc. all need to be darkened. The same is true with the right side of her left eye, and the whites of both eyes. They all should be darker as they turn away from us on the right side.

Play around with it in Photoshop and see what you think.