Please Critique

[Mark Gil]

This portrait was done about two months ago. "The Bride". 16 x 20 The background came out too dark in my photo of the original,which I scanned to here. Please share your thoughts.

Thanks, Mark Gil

[Steven Sweeney]

Since we've chatted via other posts about your painting style overall, I'll just supplement with a couple of notes.

Simplify. The neck is substantially overmodeled, by which I mean there are too many small, disconnected shapes exhibiting too wide a range in values, all packed into too small an area. The darks in the hollows above and below the collarbone and the darks in the folds and creases of flesh are just too extreme. Same goes for the dark shadow running down the cheek on the viewer's left, alongside the nose and past the mouth. A photograph on a bright day may show the darks that dark. They are not.

Darken the overall tone of the ear. It's on the shadow side of the head. It's not going to be as influenced by reflected light from the veil as you might think. Also, have another look at the shapes within the ear, which right now are somewhat awkwardly represented by two virtually concentric circles. You're right to simplify, but the actual shapes likely have more nuance.

The center of the chin seems a bit to the viewer's left of where it belongs. In this pose, we'd expect it to wind up in fact favouring the other side. (Draw a vertical line from top to bottom of an egg -- tilt the egg and turn it slightly away from you -- see how the nose and mouth area turn away from you faster than the chin area? You may not want to be caught doing this. Scramble the egg and serve with Tobasco.)

Keep it up.

[Meredith Wagenknecht]

Mark....Hi there! Thought I'd take a stab at offering my first critique, and lo & behold, some of the points I planned to make have already been stated by Mr. Sweeney! I agree with what he said, and would like to mention some other things I noticed. I believe the shadow under the VIEWER'S right eye is too dark...I would lighten it a tad. The overall light source seems to come from the viewer's left, but the "crest" of her shoulder lacks highlight, and therefore, dimension..it looks kind of flat-ish, not round. Lastly, I'd recommend relaxing a bit when doing the hair. Hers appears a little too "stripey"..know what I mean? As for me, I generally have lots of fun rendering hair, and have found success treating it in more simplified shapes, without getting too worked up about drawing every strand. I hope this helps! Meredith

[Mark Gil]

Thanks Meredith and Steven, I appreciate your taken the time to share your insights on this portrait. I'm glad I posted this...I have two more to do of this girl in her wedding dress, in different poses. All this will be taken into consideration.

Thanks, Mark Gil