Unfinished Portrait

[Orville Villanueva]

Hello, everyone! It's been nearly a year since my last post and it's good to see some familiar faces continuing to provide help for those seeking advice for their paintings.

I'm currently working on this portrait of my girlfriend, which is 24x32, oil on canvas. I feel it's nearly done but I think it can improve a little more--problem for me at this stage is that I can't seem to figure out what may need improvement. Unfortunately, I do not have a reference to show since I worked on this painting from life with a few sketch notes. Advice or comments would be appreciated.

O. Villanueva

[Orville Villanueva]

Close up. Sorry about the glare, I used a little galkyd lite.

[Mai Ly]

Hello Orville,

You have done a great job painting this from life. It is hard to critique without a reference photograph. However, I think you may want to check the 'v' part of the face again. That is the proportion (a line drawn) from the outer edges of each eye coming down to the edges of the mouth (does this make sense?). I think it is critical to get these proportion right. The apples of her cheeks do not look as high as they should be, judging from the shape of her face. But then as I said, it is hard to comment without a reference photograph.

Maybe you can post a reference photo for us? (I always take more than one reference photo even painting from life, just in case I need it for the details etc.)

Mai

[Orville Villanueva]

Hello, Mai.

Thank you for replying. I agree that there are some issues that need to be addressed with the painting. I'm currently working on some portions of the painting, namely her face, to better improve the overall balance of dark and light.

As for references, I only have a few pencil sketches, mostly details of her face, no photopgraphs. I've tried working with photgraphs before---they're fine but it's difficult for me to draw some life out of those photos, so I tend to stay away from working in that manner.