Taline WIP

[Barbara Mae Hudson]

Hello everybody.

This is a commission that I am working and I seem to have hit a brick wall with regards to her likeness and youth.

Her mum doesn't want her puppy fat to be too obvious and has asked me to play it down so I am not sure whether or not it is the playing down of that that has taken away her likeness. I have put it aside for a while to enable me to 'live with it' in the hope that some divine inspiration will come my way. However, that was two weeks ago now and it hasn't yet arrived.

Any comments at this stage would be helpful, I don't really want to put it back on my easel until I am sure of where the problem areas are.

Thank you in anticipation.

Take care,

Barbara

[Mike McCarty]

Barbara,

Maybe this will help get you started.

[George Holmes]

Barbara,

I have no business commenting, but since you asked, try softening most of the edges (hands too) and reducing the contrast differences between shadows on the cheeks etc and background.

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Hi Barbara,

I think your painting looks great! My eye is drawn to where the cheek (on our left) meets the background. This sharp line makes that shape very distinctive and it is a chubby cheek so the chubbiness is played up by that sharp line. I think if you made that a softer edge it wouldn't be so noticeable and you would still retain her likeness.

I also think having her hand in the painting draws our attention to her cute chubby hands. I love them. I think I probably spent hours staring at my son's cute chubby hands when he was younger, thinking how I would miss them when the chubbiness had grown out. Little hands are wonderful and you've captured them beautifully. But if the mom wants the chubbiness downplayed, maybe removing the hands completely would please her.

I hope these suggestions are helpful,

Joan

[Barbara Mae Hudson]

Thank you so much Joan, George and Mike.

I agree about softening the contrast between her cheek and the background, I will try a combination of softening her cheek and reducing the contrast between them and see what effect that has on it.

I am now realising that the parents wish to reduce her puppy fat is what is giving me the real problem regarding her likeness and I am inclined to add a little more puppy fat to her and hope that parents approve. If they don't approve, I can show them the above photo to demonstrate the problems that occurred when their wishes were carried out.

After all, her puppy fat does not take away her obvious childlike beauty, she is a little angel!

I will place her back on the easel and work more on her in the next few days.

Thank you all so much for your help and advice on this, it is very much appreciated.

Take care,

Barbara

[Barbara Mae Hudson]

Sorry, I forgot to add .............

Joan. I am tied to keeping the hand in the painting I'm afraid, but I will soften it even more and make it more chubby.

Take care.

Barbara

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Barbara, what a cute little girl; you're almost there, aren't you? But there are a couple of things you could tackle before adding back those few extra pounds.

The outer edges of her eyes in the photo turn down more than you have them, and the eyes themselves seem slightly more elongated in the reference photo than you've painted them. There's more white between the inner corner of the eyes and the iris, on the eye on our right. Also her mouth is wider in the photo, and again the corners, especially the one on our right, are a little lower.

I don't think the puppy fat changes the width and contours of either the eyes or the mouth, but it looks as though in an effort to reduce her, you've reduced those features as well. It also looks as though the bridge of her nose between her eyes is a little too narrow in the painting. To put her on a virtual diet it's really only necessary to make the face slightly narrower but leave the features alone. Of course the cheeks and chin need to be made slightly thinner, but you've done that - maybe too much in terms of the bony prominence of the chin, because that wouldn't change. Only the flesh on either side would.

You've also given her more flesh in that shoulder to our right; it protrudes more than in the reference photo.

Lowering the contrast and toning down the skin would also make a difference, I think.

Looking forward to seeing the next steps!

[Barbara Mae Hudson]

Hi Leslie.

Taking note of all that you advised, I have worked a little more on it today and I think that it is a little nearer to completion.

I will 'live with it' for a week or so before I put it to bed.

Thank you again for all your help and advice, I am very grateful for the expert opinion from all in SOG.

Take care,

Barbara

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Hi, Barbara. I think that's made a difference, don't you? Her mouth on our right still needs to go down a little more, though, as do the outer corners of the eyes, and the iris needs to extend slightly higher on both eyes, as does the white area closest to the nose on our right, with a little less of a fold showing above it. Also try reducing the contrast on the eyelashes and softening the whiteness of the teeth and see how that looks. There is more shadow on the teeth on either side of the mouth, which helps create the sense of the mouth's curvature. Her lower lip is also fuller on the left, as it goes toward the corner, than you've made it.

You might put a touch more reflected light on the side of her face, on our left, to show the modeling of the head. It looks like her hair at the temple on our left comes in further above her eyebrow, too, which will make her face look a bit narrower and render the shape of the head better.

The shoulder looks much better now and the color of the flesh is much more lifelike in this picture of the painting. I really like the way you've done the skin tones and the hair, and that little hand is very nice.

[Michele Rushworth]

Trying to change the weight that is apparent in a subject's face is a sure way to run into major problems with likeness. You should talk to the client and paint the child the way she is.

There are many lighting techniques that can be used to make a full-faced subject appear slimmer, but with this reference photo, what you see is what you get.