Young Woman

[Jean Kelly]

Hi Alex,

I'll sleep on your suggestions, thank you for commenting. I can't reshoot her as she lives out of state and I won't see her again till Christmas. But I will go through my shots again to see if there is one with her farther away from the post.

Jean

[Alexandra Tyng]

If she is not available, you could use a stand-in. You already have the shape of her arm; all you need is to see how the light falls.

[Jean Kelly]

You're right Alex. I'm going to remove the post, and get a stand-in for the lighting on her arm. But why crop it above the bend in her arm, I've always felt that an arm leading straight down looked blocky, boring, etc and I love that little sensual curve of a soft bend. Her left arm creates the slight impression of a circle and keeps the eye in the painting.

Convince me. What is your reasoning? Please keep in mind that I value your opinion and respect your talent, I'm not being argumentative, just curious.

Jean

[Alexandra Tyng]

Hi Jean,

Convince you? Oh-oh! Well. . .I think the way you have it, the hands look cut off. In other words it says to me, "She can't paint hands." Now of course I know that is not the case!

I tend to see portraits in terms of certain groupings. There's the "head-and-shoulders," or "head-and-upper-body" which takes in the torso. But when you get down near the hands, it seems odd not to put them in. But honestly, Jean, everybody's got their own way of looking at it. That was just my reaction.

[Jean Kelly]

Hi Alex, hmmmmmmm. i don't know if I'm convinced yet. I never considered that someone might think that I cropped it there because I couldn't do hands! I just love that sensual little curve in the inner elbow,
and the circle that is created with the folds of the fabric and her arm. I think I'll do studies of this both ways and see how they turn out.

Jean

[Jean Kelly]

I've continued this topic in the "Works in Progress" section.

Jean