No. 3

[Ngaire Winwood]

Mischa
Wow, your instruction is understandable with the photoshop rendering. I will have to learn to use photoshop, I have just got it and all I have learnt to do so far is change the image size down to attach to threads. I understand lightening the value on the hand but will have to re-read what you said about the eye socket - gray tones - where?

[Mischa Milosevic]

Ngaire, I am glad I was able to help. The whit of the eyes are not pure white. One must experiment, by mixing and correcting mixes in order to reach the desired hue and value. This is how you will receive the grayish hue/value for the white of the eye. A solid understanding of value, temperature and hue is what one needs to paint well. Drawing and the values are the essentials and the foundation. Master these and the hue will tag along with a little extra study and experimenting.

Again, my sincere wishes

[Michele Rushworth]

As Daniel Greene (and others) say, a painting succeeds or not based on the decisions made in the first five minutes. Here's what I'd suggest for your next painting:

Work only from life. It will only cause you more difficulty if you try to incorporate information from a photo along with what you see with the model in front of you. This is especially the case when you're trying to use a photograph that has the lights blasted out as in the photo you used with this painting.

Set up a very simple pose, as Linda suggested. Have the model sit up straight and face you directly, no tilt of the head, no hand, and don't sit him or her too close to the light. You want a softer range of contrast that will be easier to capture in paint. Set things up so that the face is two thirds in light, one third in shadow.

Mark the corners of her chair on the floor with tape and mark the corners of the easel on the floor with tape, so you can go back to those exact positions the next day.

If the light is changing too much from day to day, work with artificial light. The Gage Academy here in Seattle teaches all its highly respected and rigorous academic classes with artificial light on the models and on the canvas, to avoid exactly the problem you describe. Don't limit yourself to artificial light long term, though. Natural light is best. While you're learning, though, eliminate as many variables as you can.

Try this a few times with a few different models and you'll be amazed at what you can do!