Baby Johann

Julie Gerleman · 02-17-2005, 09:30 AM

Oh yes, Alice -- I definitely will be adding iris highlight. It's usually the very last thing I do, though.

Terri Ficenec · 02-17-2005, 11:32 AM

Hi Julie--
It is nice to get the drawing right the first time... but sometimes it doesn't work out that way, and things can still turn out fine. When I'm in a hurry, tend to measure less in the flurry to get things on canvas and wind up having to go back in and correct later. (As long as ridges haven't built up!) On my recent painting of the little girl and her Dad, her eyes started way out of whack. Every go 'round kept shifting her right (our left) eye down. Probably wound up moving it the whole height of the eye by the time was finished. It happens. When I'm really careful to get the initial drawing right... sometimes it's so constraining not to mess it up in later layers that the piece can seem a little stale. But that's just how it works for me. . . depends on what mood

Like your new avatar!

Julie Gerleman · 02-17-2005, 11:39 AM

Yes - that's what I'm afraid might have happened that would prevent me from redoing the area -- ridges. I should be able to rework a little bit though and I can cut back the 'jarring' effect of the eyes by fudging with the color, at least in theory, even if I'm unable to redo the structure at this point.

Thanks.

Oh! Um - What's an avatar?

Terri Ficenec · 02-17-2005, 11:59 AM

It's a little scary to do, but often you can gently scrape back ridges with the edge of a palette knife.

Your avatar is the little picture of yourself that appears on your posts.

Alice Leggett · 02-17-2005, 02:54 PM

A tip I learned from Richard Whitney: Use a curved-blade X-acto knife to scrape down dried paint ridges for layering over.

I do believe in getting the proportions right the first time, but I think everyone has to make adjustments along the way.

Rob Sullivan · 02-22-2005, 12:56 PM

Julie -

Sorry I came into this thread late, but if you are still open to some help, I'd like to share my assessments and perhaps some Photoshop manipulations to guide you further.

The advice you've recieved thus far has been spot on with regards to drawing and contrast corrections, etc. I've taken the liberty of further breaking down your latest posted image into sections in order to show where there needs to be some hue shifts and saturation changes, along with a few small things that are important to fully realizing the likeness.

But before I post these things, I'd like to ask for your permission to do so. It's pretty much for the same reason that I ask my students if I may draw/paint on their work to show them the practical application of the process - just a matter of respect for personal property, really.

So let me know - hope things are going well with this one! Scraping the work down is scary, but once you do it, it's never scary again!

Julie Gerleman · 02-22-2005, 01:16 PM

Thanks for doing that, Rob, and thanks for asking. I didn't need to scrape, as it turns out, and I went ahead and re-did the eyes so that they're closer to reality. I think it looks much better now and I'm very interested in hearing your take. I'm more comfortable (and better at) negotiating values but am still pretty intimidated by hues and saturation - color, generally, still freaks me out.

So post away, and thanks.