Shaping negative space and suggestions for final model session

[Linda Champanier]

I would appreciate suggestions for this painting for the final three hour model session. It was done from life, oil on canvas, 20 x 16. Digital demonstration ok.

I would like to make the negative space around the sleeve more interesting. I changed the background last night and there are a few places where I haven't blended the background thoroughly enough with the sleeve, leaving some halos that I'll fix.

I'd appreciate any other suggestions for how to finish the painting. I've suggested the pattern on the model's dress and I'm not sure how much further to take the detail. I think it could still use work on the fabric folds.

Thanks very much for any guidance.

[Allan Rahbek]

Linda,
I have made a suggestion for the sleeve in Photo Shop.

I like the color sceme in your painting and the way you painted the hair.

Maybe you should look at the values and edges in the face, it would also be nice to to have some more neutral colors i the receding planes, such as the forehead.

[Linda Champanier]

Thanks very much for the suggestions. I like the way it looks much better with the sleeve dropped. Even though this is the way it actually is, it looks awkward the way I painted it. I'll also check the values.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Linda,

The proportions look good and I like the way you have portrayed the model. Pattern in clothing is always difficult because the artist has to make a decision about level of detail. In this case, I think you have suggested this floral pattern skillfully and consistently without becoming fussy.

The shadow areas present a problem. The shadows in the dress, compared to the rest of the shadows, are too deep and too green. The green doesn't bother me (more on that in a minute) but the value seems overly dark. Allan's changes bring the value to a more realistic level. Still, the shadows in the face and hair seem too light and lacking in depth. Maybe in your last session you could try to be less timid with them. You have introduced blue, but I think a yellow-orange component is missing. If you mix a cad yellow deep in with the blue you will achieve more depth. By this I mean a more "shadowy" feeling rather than a big value change. The trick is to mix in just enough yellow-orange so that the color is still predominantly cool, perhaps a little more greenish. A rosy or red color needs to be added to achieve the right skin tone. White will lighten up the mixture as necessary. The resulting shadows will be more consistent with the shadows in the dress. I also recommend trying this with the hair. Where the hair goes into shadow, you can use an umber (raw umber light, burnt umber + yellow ochre, etc.) mixed with blue and also a dot of cad yellow deep.
Any yellow-orange will do.

The whole painting, though accurate, seems rather flat. Once the shadows are more shadowy, The lack of depth in the background will probably become more obvious. To get more of an "airy" quality you can try mixing the browns with your shadow color (blue) + yellow-orange. This will push the browns back and create space behind the model.

[Linda Champanier]

Alexandra,

I appreciate your thoughtful critique. I realized that the image had lightened quite a bit when I saved it for the web, so I've uploaded a new version where I tried to get it closer to the original in color and value, although it's missing some of the cools and the face highlights are lighter than in the actual painting.

I redid the sleeve in Photoshop to try a different look. I'm not sure I'm settled on the contour yet.

This is closer to the actual values for the dress, so it's actually darker.

Thank you for your descriptions on mixing the colors. I struggle with my cool shadows - they go too extreme sometimes - not neutral enough. I haven't tried the particular color combination you suggested, so I'll do that. I also very much like your suggestion of adding blue to the background. I had originally had the background all the same midtone gray that's still on the left side, but it was too dull, so I glazed over it with burnt umber last night. Adding blue will tie in better with the dress and drop the brown back.

Thanks again!

[Alexandra Tyng]

Linda, I'm glad you posted the painting with corrected color. There is more depth than I had originally thought, so please disregard some of what I said above. However, I still feel that the yellow-orange component is missing from some of your shadows, most noticeably in the flesh. If you think of every color being mixed from red, yellow, and blue, then there is a predominance of red or blue. Adding a cad yellow deep or similar color will grey your shadows while it will also add in the missing color component. In the background, also, you may find that simply adding blue will darken the background, but adding also just a drop of yellow-orange to the mixture will add an "airier" space with more feeling of depth (rather than darkness). I hope this better explains what I was saying without being too repetitive.

[Michele Rushworth]

There seems to be a drawing problem with the mouth and chin area that is distracting me from other considerations. The typical human proportion is to have the center line of the mouth (the line between the lips) above the halfway point between the nose and chin. That is, the mouth is not equidistant between the base of the nose and the underside of the chin, it should be quite a bit higher than that.

Also, I agree with Alexandra's comment about the image having a feeling of flatness about it. I think that's mostly because of how the model was lit. The source of light seems to be coming from almost directly behind the viewer/artist. With that kind of lighting, you will get a flat image. For a more three dimensional feeling the lighting should be coming from a bit more to the side.