Portrait of a Young Girl in Pastel 19"/24" (3 month of work)

Sergio Ostroverhy · 04-16-2005, 01:10 AM

Am using this wonderful opportunity of this Forum to share my joy of finishing that pastel portrait (the third one in my life) and receive all the critics... even unpleasant ones!

Sergio Ostroverhy · 04-16-2005, 01:27 AM

The haircut and shirt of the girl was also designed by myself, but executed by big masters of course.

This picture was made after several portrait seances of the girl, however it's main part was done after hundreds of photos.

Lara Cannon · 06-29-2005, 10:10 AM

Hello Sergio,

I always enjoy this part of the forum. I wake up in the morning, brew my coffee, and look through the new posts & unveilings. I am surprised that there haven't been any responses to this beautiful portrait. I think that may be because you are at such a professional level there is very little to speak of technically. I love your subjects beautiful eyes and the light shinning through the flesh of her lips. The hair and fabric are a work of love. The whole portrait is finished to perfection. Obviously, you know your medium & you have developed a recognizable style. Bravo!

I have thought and thought about something I would fault you on. There are only a couple things that come to mind, and even then, I am not sure they are truly a problem. The first is the value change. If you were to go for a little bit of drama or breath a little extra life into your style I might push the value changes just a bit. The "Portrait of Youth" by Botticelli and Da Vinci's portrait of a young girl came to my mind when I looked at your work. When I compare your work to theirs I think their values have a slightly wider range than yours--which adds to the fullness of form and the dynamic play of light and dark.

The only other thought I have, is the lack of gesture in your models. Which may be a stylistic choice and not a relevant discussion. Perhaps just adding a hand or relaxing your models just a bit would give a more gestural quality to your work.

It is a pleasure to see your work in this forum.
Lara Cannon

Sergio Ostroverhy · 06-29-2005, 11:48 AM

Concerning the static pose, I agree shall try to be in the future may be looking more for the diversity... but it was definitely a choice in order to concentrate on the essence of the regard and not the accessories... gestures, objects and so on

Concerning the values (if I well understood you call black and white tonality contrast this way) I think the bed reproduction of the camera creates that effect: normally in life the picture has a slight "sfumante" effect very "pastel" tones (values) to make it disappear a bit in the background... it was a choice which was very important to obtain that slightly mystical emotion we have when we are in front of the picture in reality... also the idea of accentuate the black point in the eyes and the dark eyebrow did not leave me too much choice concerning the strong tonality contrast.

so here are some better pics...

Sergio Ostroverhy · 06-29-2005, 11:56 AM

and some more

Enzie Shahmiri · 06-29-2005, 06:52 PM

It is just beautiful Sergio. The detail is incredible!

Alicia Kornick · 06-30-2005, 01:54 AM

Beautiful, it has the look of an egg tempera painting rather that a pastel. Since the painting is mostly high values, I wonder what it would look like with a darker background. Not that you should or would do that, just wondering.

Your ability to render detail is nothing short of incredible!!

Alicia

Lon Haverly · 07-10-2005, 06:26 PM

You and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to portrait drawing. I have not spent more than twenty minutes on a single portrait drawing in thirty years! This piece needs no critique.

I always wonder how you can do a pastel with this much detail when the tools are so big! I use soft pastels, Schminke, and finish with Conte Paris pencils. Even the pencils are big and awkward, and only fit for sketch work.

What materials did you use here? Do you use blending tools?