No. 3 - Page 2

Mischa Milosevic · 06-28-2007, 06:18 AM

One more thing. Most of the major drawing corrections are adjusted at this stage. So when you get into the form stage only slight drawing adjustments are made otherwise one must rework the entire section.

All the best to you.

Ngaire Winwood · 06-28-2007, 07:18 AM

Mischa
Wow, your instruction is understandable with the photoshop rendering. I will have to learn to use photoshop, I have just got it and all I have learnt to do so far is change the image size down to attach to threads. I understand lightening the value on the hand but will have to re-read what you said about the eye socket - gray tones - where?

Mischa Milosevic · 06-28-2007, 07:34 AM

Ngaire, I am glad I was able to help. The whit of the eyes are not pure white. One must experiment, by mixing and correcting mixes in order to reach the desired hue and value. This is how you will receive the grayish hue/value for the white of the eye. A solid understanding of value, temperature and hue is what one needs to paint well. Drawing and the values are the essentials and the foundation. Master these and the hue will tag along with a little extra study and experimenting.

Again, my sincere wishes

Michele Rushworth · 06-28-2007, 10:07 AM

As Daniel Greene (and others) say, a painting succeeds or not based on the decisions made in the first five minutes. Here's what I'd suggest for your next painting:

Work only from life. It will only cause you more difficulty if you try to incorporate information from a photo along with what you see with the model in front of you. This is especially the case when you're trying to use a photograph that has the lights blasted out as in the photo you used with this painting.

Set up a very simple pose, as Linda suggested. Have the model sit up straight and face you directly, no tilt of the head, no hand, and don't sit him or her too close to the light. You want a softer range of contrast that will be easier to capture in paint. Set things up so that the face is two thirds in light, one third in shadow.

Mark the corners of her chair on the floor with tape and mark the corners of the easel on the floor with tape, so you can go back to those exact positions the next day.

If the light is changing too much from day to day, work with artificial light. The Gage Academy here in Seattle teaches all its highly respected and rigorous academic classes with artificial light on the models and on the canvas, to avoid exactly the problem you describe. Don't limit yourself to artificial light long term, though. Natural light is best. While you're learning, though, eliminate as many variables as you can.

Try this a few times with a few different models and you'll be amazed at what you can do!

Ngaire Winwood · 06-28-2007, 07:06 PM

Mischa,
Thanks again for your support.

Michelle,
Thanks for your support as well. Yes I would like to work more from life but the model was unavailable a bit, due to her being a teenager (parties, casual work etc.) I found that at that age of unreliability for appts with me, I started working from the photo, which caused me more worries than it was worth because her position in the chair was a slouch and I couldn't get the hand/arm ratio to head the same at each sitting. I will take on board your comments and try to be a bit easier on myself for the next one. I think I will buy some sort of lighting to use instead of relying on the wintery days we are having at the moment, the days are just too bleak and inconsistent to work from. I went for the softer shadows because I worked more in life from cloudy days, but the photo was taken on a sunny day.

I am not sure if I should continue to refine this painting more tighter as per suggestions with lighting the hand, face and arm highlights or just take note of comments and use them for the future.... I do want to put it into an exhibition in a couple of weeks. This work will be the first view of my new portrait work and I want to make an impact if I can. What do you suggest?

Mischa Milosevic · 06-28-2007, 07:22 PM

I would most definitely continue working on this one even to the point of ruin. You must not fer making a mistake. Please do what I suggested and gett the values and the drawing perfect. When you think you have done this put it up for critique. You have only to gain and nothing to lose.

Ngaire Winwood · 06-28-2007, 07:22 PM

Here is my work in progress of my second entry into the same exhibition, due to be finished in less than two weeks. I want to re-work the hands and maybe darken the top left corner more and fine tune the shapes of fingers more too.

20 x 14 pencil on grey paper

Michele Rushworth · 06-28-2007, 07:44 PM

Quote:

This work will be the first view of my new portrait work and I want to make an impact if I can. What do you suggest?

I would not suggest you exhibit this one. Working from life with a simpler pose would help you make a much stronger painting.

As for the availability of models, get a commitment up front from someone for however many sessions you think you might need. If you can't pay them at least offer them an 8x10 print of the finished painting. If you have a hard time finding someone to sit still that long have them sit and watch tv over your shoulder if need be. And then there's always the most co-operative model around: you!

Alexandra Tyng · 06-30-2007, 08:49 PM

Ngaire,

I agree with Michele that you should not exhibit this portrait. Trying to "get it right" for a show is putting a lot of pressure on yourself--the wrong kind of pressure. It would be better to wake up every morning with the drive to paint better and better. Compared to that, making a good impression in a show is not important. You've received excellent advice from all these people!

Ngaire Winwood · 07-01-2007, 01:47 AM

Thanks Alex, I appreciate your support.

Alex, Mischa, Linda and Michelle, yes I realise that all advice given here is instruction from those who know what it takes to get there. I do also realise it is a long road ahead of me and hopefully I can grasp and understand such meaningful instruction along the way. I really do appreciate those who log on and who share their own wealth of information with us all. I wish I could watch you in person to see the real deal.

Question? I started to change the highlight values and am having difficulty joining the shadow colour to the highlight. Do you add a halftone to wedge these two tones together. I mean, if I have a 6 value (shadow) with a 2 value (highlight) do I place a 4 value in the middle so that the joining is more subtle? Or a sliver of 5, 4, 3 in between the two???