Moria (Girl with a crystal earring)

Marvin Mattelson · 08-23-2004, 12:39 AM

This is the final incantation demo I developed during the two week workshop I just returned from in Atlanta. Moria is a belly dancer who also models for artists. It was a real joy to paint her. To me the success of a painting rests on the artist's ability to capture light and life. I mostly focused on her head (it was a portrait workshop after all.) I do wish I had a little more time in order to do some additional work on the rest of her.

I documented the entire progression of the painting and will be posting it in the not too distant future. For now, here are some shots of the final painting.

Joan Breckwoldt · 08-23-2004, 10:01 AM

Marvin,

Another amazing portrait by you! I am looking forward to seeing the photos of the in-progress stages, thank you in advance for posting them.

Joan

Denise Hall · 08-23-2004, 11:51 PM

Marvin,

It's hard to believe you paint like this with a throng of people asking you a question a second - it's beautiful and I know the model wants it!

Denise

Marvin Mattelson · 08-24-2004, 12:16 AM

I think the color of these may be a little off so I'm reposting them Sharon. The color of the photos I take with my Nikon D70 appear much too yellow when I bring them into Photoshop, so I may have over corrected them to try to compensate.TYhey aren't really blueish. I guess I've still got plenty of fiddling around to do. Also I have a Mac so I want them to look good on PC's as well. The weird thing is that they print out perfectly on my printer.

Denise, I've done so many demos that I'm pretty immune to distractions The only thing that does distract me is if someone is close to me and in my peripheral vision. At this point I'm not interested in selling my demo but someone in the workshop did want to purchase it.

Janel Maples · 08-24-2004, 12:27 AM

Marvin,

I am so sorry I missed this in person. How I would have loved to have been watching over your shoulder on this one.

I was ready to go to bed but I find myself studying this. I keep going back to the close up you posted. It looks like I could reach in and actually follow the form of her face with my finger.

I love it. I absolutely love it.

Holly Snyder · 08-24-2004, 10:47 AM

The increased color saturation (and sharpening?) really brings her to life. I particularly like the variation in colors that you have in her face, more reds, blues and yellows than I've seen in your other pieces. Beautiful. Does the background contain blue? If so, is some of that same blue mixture on the cheek and neck in shadow and under her eyes? Or is that a mixture of black and white?

Given that we have similar Nikon digital cameras, it's interesting that your digital images appear to yellow. Mine are always too red (warm) on my monitor and printer, and I have to increase the blue and green channels in the levels in Photoshop, as well as decrease the red saturation. It can be so frustrating when prints don't match the monitor. I seem to remember that you calibrated your monitor with a hardware/software package, but the package didn't work on your printer?

Holly

Joan Breckwoldt · 08-24-2004, 02:38 PM

Hi Marvin,

Just out of curiosity, what value would you assign her forehead or cheek? And what value to the shadow side of her face or under her neck? Somehow you have made her seem so lifelike and 3 dimensional, but the value range within her face doesn't seem so large . . . at least not when compared to the dark value of her hair.

I guess I thought this type of 3-dimensionality was accomplished through a wide range of values, but you seem to have done it without that large range. You'll probably tell me you did this with changes in temperature? That's what I keep reading on the forum, but I am yet to understand how this can work.

Thank you for any light you can shed on this,

Joan

Marvin Mattelson · 08-24-2004, 08:28 PM

Joan, the values in her face range from almost white (value 9 3/4) down to almost black (value 1 in her nostril) and black (value zero) in her pupils. I'd say that's a pretty good range. The cheek value averages about 3 1/2. Her right cheek and forehead average around 8, not counting the highlights. The scumbling adds great translucency and provides much depth. Keeping the values massed is the key. In other words, separating the the light and shadow values. This provides strength of form. I am not the least bit concerned with color temperature changes due to the ambiguity of those terms. I feel that identifying the hue, value and chroma of each color shape is much more precise for me.

Holly there are no blues used in the light. No black mixed with white. Just neutrals. When warm lights are scumbled over warm darks the resulting colors look cool. The background contains ultramarine blue in the scumble mixture and that same mixture was added to create the reflected light in the shadows. The reflected light under her chin is about a fifth value at the lightest point.

My monitor is perfectly calibrated except for when I'm using Photoshop. In Photoshop everything appears too yellow. The prints I make are stunningly real, relative to the colors of what I'm photographing, even though I print out of Photoshop. The Nikon Capture software appears too yellow as well, but the color is perfect in the Nikon View software. Go figure!?!

Elizabeth Schott · 08-24-2004, 10:49 PM

Quote:

The color of the photos I take with my Nikon D70 appear much too yellow when I bring them into Photoshop, so I may have over corrected them to try to compensate.TYhey aren't really blueish. I guess I've still got plenty of fiddling around to do. Also I have a Mac so I want them to look good on PC's as well. The weird thing is that they print out perfectly on my printer.

HA!

Marvin, this is one of my favorites, I think you have caught an amazing amount of personality in this dancer. I think you are too modest when it comes to your demo experience, because what Denise failed to also mention - besides the Q&A - is the entertainment value of the artist!

Bravo!

Marvin Mattelson · 08-25-2004, 07:31 AM

Beth, I'm more fun than a barrel of monkeys! I thought that was a given. And I clean up more easily. My main goal in every painting is to capture the light on and the life in my sitter, so I'm glad you connected with her. I learned so much doing this painting. Painting from life is the key to heaven.

Thank you Sharon. I really wish you could see this one in person. I painted on this one for six days. After the first few days my students kept saying, "How much farther can you take it?" I think it really set the bar, which was my intention to begin with.