Good Reference?

[Michele Rushworth]

I think your life would be SO much easier if you took a better photo of him or someone else with correct color. If you're shooting digital be sure to set the white balance to match the light source (ie "shade" if it's window light). I personally wouldn't try to invent skintone color. Too hard for me!

[Cindy Procious]

Correcting photos is what Photoshop was invented for - it's fairly simple to remove a yellow tint from a photo.

What beautiful eyes he has.

[Patricia Joyce]

Thanks Cindy,
That's cool. What does everyone else think about the coloring of the adjustment in Photoshop? Along with a live sitting???

Chris, I don't think I can get Marty to sit still for me for more than five minutes, typical teenage boy. Plus he is very shy!! I was amazed he let me take this photo. I like this photo for the lighting on his face as far as range of value. I am thinking of doing a monochrome painting, perhaps I will just use this image for that exercise??

Mike, I am pleased you like the photo. I was pretty happy with the way the light falls across his features and it is pretty crisp for me anyways!

Michele I will check out the features of my camera, there should be some such switch...

[Mike McCarty]

I really like monochrome oil paintings. How bout placing the head and shoulders in the middle of the canvas and leave some blank canvas around the bottom of the shirt, tailing off irregularly instead of squaring off the bottom like in the photo. You might be able to get that done on a 16x12 canvas with a 7" head.

[Patricia Joyce]

Mike, this is great. I think that is what I will do. Thanks for posting this image. Hopefully you will see progress in critique section in the next couple weeks . . .