Old friend in oil

Lon Haverly · 06-12-2002, 02:37 PM

20" x 16". As always, your critiques are coveted.

Lon Haverly · 06-12-2002, 02:39 PM

photo

Lon Haverly · 06-12-2002, 02:41 PM

For some reason, the JPEG looks more ruddy than the original. The colors are warmer.

Peter Jochems · 06-16-2002, 08:33 AM

Hi Lon,

I like the painting. Only one remark. The piece of the chair(?), under her arm, I'm not sure, but maybe it gives the painting a more informal look if you do not show that? The detail is a bit confusing.

Greetings,
Peter

Virginia Branch · 06-16-2002, 10:22 AM

Lon,

You did an excellent job especially if your photo reference was only in black and white...was it? I think you captured the subject's nice smile - she seems to be a warm, friendly person.

I have to agree with Peter about the chair. I wasn't sure what it was supposed to be. Would it be too difficult to paint over it? It is a beautiful painting so you hate to mess with something that is working! Anyway, good luck! Keep posting.

Sandy Barnes · 06-17-2002, 06:24 AM

Lon, What a beautifully rendered hand. I love it.

BTW, critique is not my intention but (in my humble opinion) the omission of the back of the chair is what seems to be the confusion.

Mike McCarty · 06-17-2002, 09:45 AM

Hey Lon, nice work there pal. I have two nitty comments, I agree with Sandy about the back of the chair. I think the back does more to explain her "sitting" posture. The other thing is the high value sheen on the back of the hand. My eye is drawn to it and away from the the pretty lady's face. Small subjective matters regarding a nice painting.

Chris Saper · 06-17-2002, 10:16 AM

Dear Lon,

Beautiful job!

I am actuallly completely untroubled by the absense of the chair; I took this to be a standing pose before seeing the source, and the stance works for me. It's the same counterbalancing of weight someone assumes when carrying a small child.

My only comment is with regard to the temperature of the background, as the figure except for the sweater, is painted in predominantly cool hues, and seems unintegrated with the color of the background. On my monitor, both the lights and shadows in the face and blouse look cool. Since your primary light source is coming in from the right, and looks like sunlight, I wouldprobably expect to see relatively different temperatures between the primary and secondary sources.

Your friend should be thrilled.

Chris

Lon Haverly · 06-17-2002, 05:05 PM

Again, great remarks. It is a black and white. We knew this lady and young family thirty years ago. Lost track until last month, and was dreadfully shocked at her story, and at her age and condition.

She moved away twenty five years ago, her husband divorced her after getting into drugs, she had an ear infection which went into her brain and caused her to wander out of the house in a stupor and became homeless and barefoot for three months before institutionalized. Since then, she has recovered her mind, but now resides in a rest home and is old and feeble, toothless and dependent. We could not recognize any of the ballet dancer we once knew, except the sound of her voice. This is a person whom I thought was my age.

I am a bit torn with the background. I started out using the pine wood, but the yellows and grays in the pine looked awful. So I blocked it all out with a fill background. I did leave the entire chair out. The white you see below is actually pink, and is the scarf around her neck hanging down. I then thought of darkening the background even more. Don't know. The subject had daylight from the right, and reflected (I thought warmer) light from the left. Any thoughts as to what colors to try in the background?

I have redone the face with slightly softer shadows and warmer colors. Will post after working on the background.

Thanks again.

Learning.