Dan

[Chuck Yokota]

Mai,

In answer to your question, I am painting directly over the underpainting. I want to develop my skills with opaque painting before dealing with glazing.

[Karin Wells]

Even though your repost is better color-wise, you might wish to consider going a tad more neutral with your background.

You might experiment with a thin glaze of a transparent green over your red to neutralize the color a bit.

[Peter Jochems]

Personally I feel that the strong direction of the background distracts from the serene expression of the face. I personally would choose a greyish background instead of red, but in some cases it might work.

I would develop your skills in painting in opaque paints; you're on the right track, nice job in the skin-tones! (My suggestion: focus on opaque painting...most old masters didn't glaze to achieve the desired effects, the glazing myth leads mostly to confusion)

Peter

P.S. Was blending the bridge of the nose and the lighted part of the face inspired by Vermeer's 'Girl with the Pearl Earring'?

[Chuck Yokota]

Karin, Peter,

Thank you for your comments. As Mai has also suggested, I will tone down the background to a more neutral color. As I know nothing about glazing, I find I am not brave enough to try the experiment on an almost-finished painting, so I will paint opaque on top.

Peter, the edge of the nose was almost lost on the reference photo, but I did think of the Vermeer painting when I decided to leave it lost.

[Chuck Yokota]

Here is the painting with the background redone. I think I will call it finished at this point.

[Chuck Yokota]

Close-up

[Celeste McCall]

That is such a neat and intuituve interpretation of the photo. This was fun seeing the progression. Thanks Chuck!

[Karin Wells]

As I know nothing about glazing, I find I am not brave enough to try the experiment on an almost-finished painting, so I will paint opaque on top.

What is the point of underpainting if you ignore it and paint opaquely on top of it?

Adding a glaze is a piece of cake. Take a little bit of transparent color (i.e., a color you can see through like; sap green, raw sienna, prussian blue, etc.) and add a lot of medium. Paint this mixture over the area that you wish to glaze.

Do not try to glaze with an opaque color (i.e., white, yellow ochre, indian red, etc.) When you "glaze" with an opaque color, it is called a scumble.

If you don't like the way your glaze looks, wipe it off before it dries and try something else.

[Karin Wells]

I also agree with Peter about the stripes - they are too strong.

Here is yet another attempt to suggest a non-specific yet "interesting" background.

[Peter Jochems]

As my response to these remarks would have to be lenghty this would move this thread into another direction where it probably starts to get off-topic in this critiques-section. Probably many things regarding this have been discussed before in other threads.

I do not think that easily about glazing. It is one of the most misunderstood aspects of painting-technique. Painting in opaque paint a subtly modelled area, and putting a glaze on top of it often spoils the nuances of the modelling. Once added it is not so easy to remove a certain glaze without damaging the painting in some way. Glazed areas, (or what people do when they think they are glazing) often appear like dark stains on paintings from certain angles, mostly distorting the appearance of the painting.

What is the point of underpainting if you paint opaquely on top of it?

I don't know where to begin to start to answer this (rethorically meant) question... let's keep it at the conclusion that karin and I differ in opinion.

Searching this forum will provide you lots of information, which will probably be (admittedly) a confusing amount of contradictory remarks by the several different pros on this forum since the misunderstandings, especially about glazing and the use of underpainting are a crucial part of the many differences in interpretation of the painting-techniques of the 16th- and 17th century painters.

Peter