Beautiful Dutch girl, no earring

Brenda Ellis · 08-21-2005, 08:46 AM

Hi Janet!
This is lovely.
As for the eyes, I see that you have made the irises just a tad larger than they are in the photo. The top lid on her right eye has an ever so slight point at the top of it's arch in the photo. In your painting it is a perfectly round arch. And the blue of the iris is lighter in the photo. Especially in her right eye.
I also like the way you paint. It feels very loose and playful. Very nice!

Michele Rushworth · 08-21-2005, 09:54 AM

Nice painting, you're getting close, but need to be more precise with the shapes of the eyes and lips.

Janet Kimantas · 08-21-2005, 02:25 PM

Hi guys,

Thanks so much for your thoughts. I really wanted to make this painting special. I went out for breakfast, then for a little drive in the country, got your input and went straight to work. Phew. At least two hours work and it doesn't look like much at all.

Marcus: I lowered the values in the light areas of her face on the one side a little . Let's call it a compromise. You are right, of course, but I am as yet unwilling to go as far as the photo reference calls for.

Cynthia: The first thing I dealt with was that catch light. I promise that I will never, never do it again.

Tricia: Painting flesh overly warm is a problem of mine that I am working on. I will go some way towards blaming my tools in that I think the original post was too warm. I took the pic on the south side of the house in the shade, this one I took on the north side. Anyway, I am aware of my need to use more cools. Thanks.

Brenda: I worked hard on the eyes. I will look at them again tomorrow. Right now I'm going to work on a landscape. Big brushes. No eyelids.

Michele: Thanks. Please let me know how I did.

Michele Rushworth · 08-21-2005, 04:31 PM

Better but still not quite right. Most artists have a tendency to try to level things out, as if the face was straight on, and straight up and down. This is happening especially with the mouth and the near eye.

Janet Kimantas · 08-21-2005, 05:01 PM

Michele, yeah I see what you mean. Phooey. I'll work at it this week and try to get it right. Thanks again, Janet

Brenda Ellis · 08-21-2005, 10:00 PM

Janet,
I have been working on a portrait and today I had to scrub out the whole face and start the features all over again. Everything was out of wack just enough to make referencing impossible! At least you are very close to your goal. It's the result that matters, after all, not the number of hours we work on it. Can you imagine if paintings in museums or galleries had little tags on them like "had to re-do ear six times" or "the nostrils were impossible"?
You just sounded a little disheartened so I wanted to cheer you up and encourage you.

Michele Rushworth · 08-22-2005, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Can you imagine if paintings in museums or galleries had little tags on them like "had to re-do ear six times" or "the nostrils were impossible"?

This I'd like to see!

Michele Rushworth · 08-26-2005, 09:50 AM

Better, however there are still a few more things:

The lower edge of the eye on our left needs to come down more. The "line between the lips" needs to come down more also on the far left side. That line also needs to be softened as it moves out beyond the lips at the left end. Also watch the tip of the nose. There needs to be a slightly darker shape on the tip of it, to make that cute turned up nose that she has. And be sure you don't lose the nice dimple to the right of the mouth. It's almost gone.

I've been known to paint features five times over to get them right!