Tyler

[Debra Norton]

Well, I did it, at least I hope I did it. I've never posted a picture before, so I'm not sure it worked. The digital photo is a bit fuzzy, but I didn't know how to fix it.

This is a colored pencil portrait of my grandson, Tyler. Please critique. Thank you.
Debra Norton

[Lon Haverly]

Nice detail and form! A labor of love, no doubt!

You may want to use some of the tools in the computer photo lab to enhance the work for viewing before you post it. It looks a bit paler than it probably is. Try to find the brightness enhance menu. There might be an auto-balance setting which may work for you.

Congratulations!

Lon

[Cynthia Daniel]

Debra,

In response to Lon's comment, is it possible this is closer to how the portrait looks in real life? Also, I recommend when you save as a .jpg file, look for the compression option and choose a higher quality. You'll get a clearer image.

[Steven Sweeney]

If you have this and any more work like it to show when you're scouting out studios this summer, you're going to make a very strong impression indeed. This is work well in advance of where I was when I approached the sort of training venues that you're looking at -- if that gives you some confidence during the "scary bits"!

I'm assuming that this has been worked up from a photograph -- please correct me if I'm wrong. The drawing is quite strong in the way it's pushed well beyond mere contours, the textures and form in the garments and hair well discovered and displayed in a convincing way.

The lighting was an impediment for you here, from above and pretty diffuse -- makes it harder to define features without resorting to contour lines rather than value shapes. It's not easy to convincingly "imagine" what the scene would look like in stronger, more side-directional light, so there's really not much you can do about it if that's what you're given at the time when the references are noted. That said, a small tweak here and there might be possible -- for example, with the shadows in the hair and the jacket being fairly strong, I might have expected to see a bit of cast shadow under the nose, which would have helped that form advance toward the viewer.

I've never worked with coloured pencils to any degree, so I don't know how difficult it is to get some strong darks going, but I do think a little bit more extension in the value range would go a long way, especially right in those areas where a dark meets a much lighter area (the constrast enhances depth). For example, darkening the far part of the swing seat would slip it in behind the jacket less ambiguously.

The grass seems just a little too much of a single hazy shape. Again, the lighting on this particular day may have been a factor, but think about having the grass become a bit more saturated in hue and darker in value as it approaches the sand area. This may add depth and help to "lay the grassy area down", rather than appearing to rise up behind the boy at a plane angle steeper than that of the sand.

I rather like the composition, though I do miss seeing at least one of the boy's hands, perhaps his left reaching forward to loosely grasp the swing chain. (The downward angle of the arm -- wrist to elbow -- and the upward angle of the swing chair would also "point" back to the subject, for compositional benefit.)

Make sure you have this in the portfolio when you pack up and "head east of the mountains", as we used to say in western Montana.

Best wishes,
Steven

[Debra Norton]

Thank you all so much for your comments. Yes, Cynthia, your post is closer to the real thing. I'll try to get the compression stuff figured out before I post again. I don't have a photo system or scanner on this computer; my husband has Adobe Photo and the scanner. I suppose it would have been better to run it through that first. (It didn't occur to me to do that.) I'm hoping to get Paint Shop Pro soon which would solve a lot of my problems in this area.

Steven, you're right, it was from a photo. Unfortunately my grandson lives 350 miles away and I had to use photos. I took pictures of him and his sister for a colored pencil workshop and had to use what I could get at the time, including the poor lighting of an overcast day. (I used his sister for the workshop.) There is a bit of a cast shadow under the nose, but I guess I didn't make it intense enough. I'll work on it. That's one of my shortcomings I know I need to overcome - I've tended to do everything very "high light." I'll keep working on that; believe it or not, I have improved some in that area.

I agree with your comments about the grass and swing. I'll make those changes. I also agree with your comments about missing the hand; it would be nice to have one showing. But I know I can't make that change at this point.

Thank you all again, I really appreciate the time you take to encourage and help those of us who are just starting out.

Debra