semi nude of Chantelle

Lesley Grindlay · 01-09-2008, 10:33 AM

I started this painting several yrs ago and It's time to complete, however having some trouble, sometimes its hard to see the forest from the trees and good to get another perspective. What can i do to breathe some life into this painting, unfortunately chantelle isnt available for modelling, so working off a photo. It's 36x48

Allan Rahbek · 01-09-2008, 04:04 PM

Lesley,
I will give a few hints of what could be improvements.

The sides of the body are almost symmetrical, you would want more variation from one side to the other.

The figure seems to turn a bit to the right with the shoulders but the spinal column is not suggesting or seemingly following the twist.

The head and hair looks too big for the figure and out of proportion with the hip area.

Finally, the back lean of the chair seems odd, I would remove it and rather add some solidity to the seat instead.

Hope that you can use some of it.

Lesley Grindlay · 01-09-2008, 05:00 PM

thanks very much Allan for ur advice, ah so the beehive hairdo didnt work, thanks I'll definately change that! LOL!

Mischa Milosevic · 01-09-2008, 06:04 PM

Lesley, if you wish to bring life to your painting then you need to think about the arrangements of the light falling on the figure. If you look on the drape area and the definite separation of light and shadow you will understand what I'm saying.

If I was you, I would sign this and put it in a frame. This is excellent as is and needs no change.

Lesley Grindlay · 01-09-2008, 06:33 PM

Thanks Mishka, yeah i did this in my studio and unfortunately Chantelle had no time to sit for me, so took pics, I had several light sources and she wanted something dramatic and also a tad off the wall, hence the chair arrangement.. Now that I'm closer to edmonton where she resides I can arrange to finish this off from life which I way prefer to do as I am a pleine aire painter.