Portrait of my brother from photo

[Brad Utterstrom]

Here is a portrait I drew recently. It is 12" x 9", pastel on Canson Mi-tientes paper.

http://www.brads-art.com/bodyconte2.jpg

I'm interested in seeing what you can suggest to help me improve it. In particular, I'm interested in developing a little bit of a looser and more unique style. Many of the pastel portraits I see are so perfect, without a single stray mark. I want to get away from that sort of thing. The best example I can give is the pastel portraits by Harley Brown, the way he incorporates the background with the subject, and uses dashes of unexpected color that seem a bit more spontaneous and lively. One of my major goals in portraiture is to add a bit more character while still maintaining accuracy, in terms of proportion, value, etc. All critiques are welcome of course, but this is the main goal I'm trying to address.

Here is the source photo:


http://www.brads-art.com/bodydraw.jpg

[Josef Sy]

Hi Brad,

It is a nice rendeing, but I think the source photo is the problem. It is better to not have flashed photo as a reference. The flash really flattens the subject and you will be missing a lot on cast shadows and mid tones. I have worked with photographs in the past and it is always harder especially if it flashed.

These are a few things that I can see but perhaps another artist can give you more feedback.

1) His hair looks as though it's gray and not the dark brown I see in the photo. His hair color appears darker than his beard in the photo, also.

2) His right eye is larger than his left eye.

3) The highlighted areas on his neck needs to be toned down. The neck is appearing as light as his forehead, which is not the case.

Hope this helps.

Melissa

[Sharon Knettell]

Brad,

I think you need some serious remedial work on the basics. Copying a photo in Nupastel is not portraiture. There is a serious discussion of contemporary portraiture on the thread, "Criticism and Anger, a Lethal Mix".

I have outlined what I think are the basic steps for doing competent portraiture. Other opinions are there as well for your perusal.

Sincerely,

[Sergio Ostroverhy]

I like the strong expression of this face. However the left eye must be a little bit closer...