Layne

[Steven Sweeney]

But I never thought that I could execute the flowers. So the flowers go and in their going the balance goes

I'm not so sure. I wouldn't ever have tried to put the flowers in, where they were in the photo. All the compositional weight would have been over on the right edge, and all colour as well. Possibly over on the other side, but I have too little experience and imagination to "make them up" where I can't see them. You did the right thing to leave them out. However, you could capture some of their reflected light in the girl's face anyway ... ??? ... and lighten and warm up that shadow side.

There's lots of room left here for building this into a stellar piece. Don't wrap it up yet.

[Chris Saper]

Hi Mike,

I was tickled to open this post and see Layne's portrait! I agree the "what to leave in?" question is always angst-producing. I think that the frame on the wall does provide a good visual 'stop' and redirects the eye back to the face. Also I love the color fo the flowers, but you're right, there is painfully little visual info to help. I've had this problem before and found the only way I could really deal with the flowers (or vase, or whatever) was to get a real bouquet, set them up in my studio,(I try to mimic the light quality of the source photo)and then do that part of the painting from life.

The exception to this is that I actually remembered to properly photgraph flowers at my last portrait shoot, roses that were strewn about.

Back to the flowers...what I like about the pink flowers is that their placement cements the viewpoint, that one is looking at Layne from a low angle, past the flowers...her expression really lends itself to a wide range of interpretations, which adds tremendously to a portrait's universal appeal.

Great job, Mike, I can imagine that Layne is thrilled!

Chris

[Mike McCarty]

Thanks Chris, about the flowers... the thing that is appealing to me about the flowers is their lack of focus. The soft out of focus intrusion of the pink in front of the crisp Layne. This is much easier to do, for me, with a camera than with a brush. I came so close to attempting an out of focus rendition of the flowers. I argued with myself that if the flowers stayed then the chair back had to stay which would tend to explain that they "were" flowers on the dining room table and not some unexplained thing. And then the picture on the wall could stay and yada, yada, yada. These questions regarding composition, especially for us less astute, seem more important to me. I will probably always jigger up an eye or a nose. But these other issues are more difficult to recover from.

And in parting I would say that this simplest form of Layne, which I chose, could be very appealing in a more deft hand. When I started the painting I really didn't know how I would treat the sweater. I'm not thrilled with the way it ended up. When all else was stripped away it fell to the sweater to carry a bigger part of the show. As always it's an interesting process and I learn so much each time out. Thanks again for the encouragement and I look forward to seeing those roses (deftly focused I'm sure).

[Steven Sweeney]

Occasionally I "make the decision" about modifying a piece by hanging a sheet of acetate in front of the painting and roughing in the proposed additions or changes on the acetate. It's a crude method and representation, of course, but more than once the procedure has led me to decide that I didn't want to make the modification at all, or at least that I wanted it done in a different manner, and I was glad to be able to just toss the acetate. It's the low-tech version of Lon Haverly's "Undo" button.

Steven

[Mike McCarty]

I've heard of that and have even done some even lower tech versions. I actually did some "what if's" using my photo editing program. That can be useful as well. Thanks Steven for reminding me.

[Lon Haverly]

Great job! Beautiful panting. Love the lighting - the colors. Well done, Mike!