Laura

Chuck Yokota · 11-22-2005, 01:04 PM

This is a portrait of a high school senior that I've just done. 24"x18", oil on canvas. Any comments, responses and critiques welcome. Digital demonstration OK.

The photo of the portrait is more purple than it appears in person, and there are some glare speckles.

Cheryl Ellicott · 11-22-2005, 06:15 PM

You've done a wonderful job capturing personality and likeness. Very nice!

I would suggest toning down the background a little because the color is too intense/pure and distracts from her lovely face.

Cheryl

Alexandra Tyng · 11-22-2005, 10:34 PM

Hi Chuck,

I agree that you've done a great job of capturing a likeness, and you've also captured more--the sweetness and directness of her personality. The only things you might want to re-check are the left (our right) eye, which is slightly too wide open; the top lid and lashes cover slightly more of the iris. Also the hair seems too solid and all-of-a-piece. I agree that the background could be toned down. It would really help if you could get some better photos. Nice work!

Alex

Marcus Lim · 11-22-2005, 10:50 PM

Hi Chuck!
I concur with Cheryl and Alex's points, and it's especially so important to have a better reference photo. If you're able to posterize the images, you can also see that the shadows have their variations in values. I think learning about them will be most helpful for future projects.

marcus

Alexandra Tyng · 11-23-2005, 10:01 AM

Actually, Marcus, I was referring to the photo of the painting, not reference photos. I think the reference photo is fine. Sorry to cause a misunderstanding. I'd love to see the real colors in the painting.

Chuck Yokota · 11-23-2005, 11:41 AM

Cheryl, Alexandra, and Marcus,

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. I have made a change to the eye so it is not open quite so much. I see what you mean about the hair looking like a single solid mass; I'll have to think about how to change that.

The color balance on the photos of the painting is off, and the background is a lot less saturated than it appears on my monitor. I'll take some new photos this morning and try to get truer colors.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Chuck Yokota · 11-23-2005, 12:31 PM

Here are new photos

Allan Rahbek · 11-30-2005, 01:49 PM

Chuck,
what a nice subject and light !

I think that you could get a better color balance in the painting by reinforcing the light effect.
The light is warm yellow / orange and is reflected in the hair. Since the hair is also yellow /orange it will only reflect those colors and that will be the colors dominating the shadow areas on the left side, the eye, cheek, nose and chin areas.

See, this will introduce a fairly good part of warm colors in the composition to balance the colds.

Allan

Garth Herrick · 11-30-2005, 02:39 PM

Hi Chuck,

So many good responses! Allan has a good suggestion about color. I hope to not come across as too heavy handed, but I think a few tweaks can help this a lot.

The color relationships suggest her skin color is rather too cool, compared to her lips and her hair. Photographs can throw these cues off at times, and one has to look at an example of a life model to make sense of photographic colors.

I would also recheck the shapes in her face: mainly the jaw line and the angle of her nose structure.

I hope this helps and good luck with this commission!

Garth

Chuck Yokota · 12-02-2005, 09:07 AM

Allan, Garth,

Thanks for your comments and suggestions. This has been helpful to understand how to get a better color balance in the painting.