Megan - unfinished

Joan Breckwoldt · 04-15-2002, 11:06 PM

This is an unfinished painting of my daughter. I did this alla prima and I got this far and wasn't happy with the skin color. Too dark, almost tan looking skin, and I don't know how to correct it without redoing the whole thing. So this was a learning experience, as all my attempts are so far.

I would appreciate any comments, I learn SO MUCH from this forum, I am excited to finally post something of my own.

Thank you,
Joan

Joan Breckwoldt · 04-15-2002, 11:18 PM

That turned out kind of fuzzy, I think my files are too big to begin with. Here is a close-up though I'm not sure it's much clearer.

Joan

Peggy Baumgaertner · 04-16-2002, 01:26 AM

Joan,

Her skin is not too dark, the rest of the portrait is too light. If you are painting alla prima, it is important to establish the darks, middle, and light values from the beginning. You are sneaking up on the darker values. The eyes are not at their full value range, even the hair (in the shadow) is starting off too light, and you haven't established the value of the background. The nostrils need to go darker, the inside of the mouth needs to go darker. I'm seeing a hint of a shadow on the (our) right side, this would need to go darker. The value of the face seems about right, and then you could hit the tip of the nose and the forehead with a catch light.

If you start off by establishing you lightest lights and your darkest darks, you see the range you have to complete the portrait. This is why it is not only okay, but necessary to hit the white highlight in the eyes, and the darkest part of the hair or eyes at the beginning stages of a painting to see where you can go with the rest of the value ranges.

Peggy

Cynthia Daniel · 04-16-2002, 07:50 AM

Joan,

Your file being too big won't cause fuzziness. But, as an example, see the pixelation on her neck just inside her hair on the right (as the viewer). That's caused by overcompression, an option chosen when the file is saved as a .jpg.

By the way, you never want to take a smaller file and try to make it larger, you will lose quality and the degree of lose depends on percent of file size increase.

Also, if you are taking a larger file that is of poor quality and decreasing that, you will still have a poorer than possible image quality in the smaller file, though the appearance of pixelation might be minimized by decreasing the size.

I would say to give the most visibility for critiquers, continue to use and image that is 400 pixels wide.

Lon Haverly · 04-19-2002, 03:50 AM

Peggy is right, you just need to detail it with darker bolder strokes.

Another note - an odd optical illusion. When I look at this portrait with my head straight up, the eyes look like they are not straight on the eye axis. But when I tip my head to line up with the "eye axis," they appear to be in line with the ears, and the line which forms their axis. Perhaps when you detail them with darker strokes, you will note that, and make sure that they are lining up. Hold a straight edge along the line of the eyes, and you will see what I mean. When the strokes are too weak, this kind of illusion becomes more profound. Since the eyes are usually the focal point of a portrait, they should be finished with great care, but not overworked.