Portrait with a big smile

[Jose Salatino]

Oil on canvas 40 x 50. I work so hard to make smile detail

[Steven Sweeney]

Jose--

The quality of the representational work in this piece is extremely high. Drawing and paint application are excellent. There is hardly a single off-key note in the rendition.

You wrote of working very hard on the "smile". Very often it is suggested that "less is more" when it comes to painting teeth, but in this instance, it appears that the teeth are not merely incidental to the likeness, but essential to it, and so I think you've done very well with the execution, with one exception. The row of teeth looks flat, when of course it is in nature seeded about the round perimeter of the palate, "muzzle", oral cavity or whatever you might call it. And so I think it would contribute much to darken the one or two teeth at both extremities, as if the teeth were not many different shapes lined up, but a single shape molded around a form. As that form turns into and away from the light, and becomes influenced by halftones and by shadows cast by the lips and other structures of the mouth, some of the teeth will fall into shadow, others might glow with highlight.

I feel, too, an overall coolness in color temperature throughout the piece, as well as a lack of full use and manipulation of the higher values, both of which are draining dynamic light effects out of the painting. Squinting at the piece leaves the impression of an almost monochrome, single value face, against an only slightly darker (and also cool) background with similar qualities. I would recommend warming up the the flesh tones in the face (more reds, even if slight -- perhaps a glaze would be enough) and bringing up the value of the highlights on cheek and forehead. Those modest changes will, I think, quickly pull this further out of the perspective of two dimensions and into three. It will bring toward the viewer the most forward features of the face, and clearly separate the subject from the background.

Lastly, I would soften the edges on one of the tendons in the back of the hand (to avoid the redundancy of two almost identical physical features), and also make sure these weren't quite as parallel as you've depicted them, for they do of course stretch from a knuckle span that is wider than the wrist.

Cheers,
Steven

[Jose Salatino]

Thank you very much.

This type of critique is the one which me help to improve my work. Please see my other post and tell me your opinion.

[Steven Sweeney]

Jose--

I assume you are referring to your painting of Leon Gieco (I keep reading that he's "El <<Bob Dylan>> argentino", which is interesting because the instant I saw that harmonica I thought of Dylan).

The Gieco work is also rendered extraordinarily well, and I especially note in there a couple of the things I suggested working toward in this piece, namely, warmer flesh tones and more intense highlights. I realize that the lighting on the two subjects is dramatically different, but just to reiterate, I think this "Big Smile" piece could use a little warmth, not necessary in the entire flesh area, but just some counterpoint to the otherwise cool tone of the painting.

Just as an aside, you might give some thought to loosening up your style a little bit in paintings such as the Gieco piece, where a photorealistic "point in time" may not in fact capture the fluidity and dynamic quality of a live musical performance, with its inherent auditory and visual "movement". My own work is quite tightly executed and I'm trying to learn to relax a little and allow some reflection and spontaneous response into it, trying to "see" more than the visual data that can be accumulated by studying still-frame resource materials. Just something to consider.

Cheers,
Steven

[Jose Salatino]

Thanks again, your critique is very important to me. Helps me so much.

In my last post, I referred to some pastel, too.

In the pastel section are three posts: Critique this pastel portrait, Woman with jasmine and Black paper. If you can, please tell me your opinion about them.

Sorry for my English.