Entry in Art Competition

[Angela Demutskiy]

Hello,

This is a portrait that I entered in a LDS Art Competition, the theme of which was the church past and present. I used my image source as the foundation for my painting, while using pictures of the sitter's death mask to correct his facial proportions. The dimensions are 26' x 22'. Painted on a birch panel with a Payne's gray ground, I used yellow ochre as an underpainting for the face only, and continued using variations of Payne's gray as an underpainting for the rest of the portrait.

Angela

[Angela Demutskiy]

Detail on face

[Angela Demutskiy]

Image Source

[Steven Sweeney]

Hi, Angela.

The first thing that struck me about the painting overall is that it certainly does have a "period piece" look about it. I can easily imagine visiting a "hall of founders" gallery, civic or religious, and seeing portraits like this. I think you captured that "historic record" aspect nicely. I trust that the painting was well received in the competition.

I'm reluctant to offer critique, per se, of a work that is "finished", but since you've posted for critique and will certainly be doing a lot more painting, I'll "jot" down a couple of quick notes.

The thing my eye won't leave alone is the dark gray "monolith" in the background, right. Whether it's a tree or the corner of a building or monument, or whatever, I'm having trouble accepting that it belongs there -- at least quite this emphatically -- either compositionally or thematically. I can see that there's a similar structure in the source photo, but there it blends into the "night scene" background as a whole, visible only through a slight lightening and the shadow cast by the figure. Since you've taken the "night" photo and created a "daytime" painting, it might have worked better to push the value of that structure much higher (especially as it rose toward the now-bright sky), to reduce its contrast with the rest of the background, and to increase its contrast with the figure.

Particularly in the close-up, I can't get past the feeling that the eye on our right is lower and closer to the nose than the eye on our left -- and yet my attempt to verify that through measurements fails, so I look for other explanations (including the possibility that I need stronger reading glasses). I can see from the source photo that the subject has an unusually broad and flat "keystone" area between the eyebrows that is creating some sharp-edged shadow areas ("sharpened" by the photography process) in the depression of the eye socket, making this a tricky feature to capture. Interestingly, in the source photo, the eye on our right actually looks (to me) higher than the other.

I think what it comes down to is that the eyes in the painting are, to my eye, generic, and do not partake of some of the strong, characteristic lines (especially the horizontals) of the eyes in the photo. Lastly, the presentation of the full pupil and nearly the full iris, coupled with the absence of shadow on the eyeball below the upper lid, creates the effect that the subject is looking down, rather than straight out of the painting.

Having mentioned shadow, I'll wrap this up by saying that I think the whole subject would have been stronger for some heightened modeling effects, using a wider range of values. The absence of dark values and accents is particularly notable in the face, hair, and shirt -- and in and around those eyes -- where their introduction might have resulted in more well-defined and dramatic form.

Seems too long for a "reluctant" critique, but I'll let you edit out the surplus. Again, the overall effect of the painting strikes me as well suited to the task you were on about in creating it for this competition.

[Chris Saper]

Dear Angela,

You have accomplished a great deal with your rendering of the forms in the face, nice soft edges, transitions.

I think you need to double check your drawing earlier on, and throughout the painting next time. In an adult facing the viewer head on, the caruncles (pink tear ducts) are invariably right smack dab in the vertical middle of the skull. Yours are halfway in between the chin and the top of the hair, and are too high. I think this gives the impression that the middle section of the face is too long for the head size. The silhouette of the hair may be contributing a bit to this, as well.

Likewise, in adults, the bottoms of the ear lobes tend to sit just below the juncture of the nose and upper lip, although ear lobe size and shape varies a great deal more with individuals than does eye placement. As the chin tilts up or down, of course their position changes relative to their verical placement. The lobes you have painted are too high as well, given the tilt of the head.

Good luck in the competition!