Girl without any earrings - brief WIP :D

[catchlight]

Okay that's NOT really the title LOL :D I got very inspired the other night after watching "girl with a pearl earring" on dvd and just got so carried away by the lighting in the movie and the portrait itself of course :) So I took some shots of my daughter while she was talking (catching her in mid chatter is never a challenge) in some good lighting and decided to do a portrait from one of them. It's not meant to be the least like Vermeer's of course, as you can see it's nothing like it hehe, it's just inspired by the feeling that painting gives me :D

I've gone for really strong contrasts in this, and there's actually no usual flesh colours in the skin tone at all, it's all oranges, yellows, blues, green's, ivory, and some crimsony pinks. It's only taken about 4 hours so far, I'll probably get it finished today :D I've been told the gaze is a little off, and it is, poor kids cross eyed! So I'll fix that before the next update :D

This is 11x14 on drafting film :D

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/10-Nov-2006/57873-girl.jpg

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/10-Nov-2006/57873-girl_close.jpg

[ArtyLady]

This is looking absolutely great (was going to say fabulous but that's a TV show).

I really like the skin tones and the composition and the jumper. Can't wait to see progress.

[Rita2479]

Hi Wendy,

I like this so far, the colours you've got in the flesh tones are very interesting and work nicely.
The gaze is a bit off but to correct it should be very minor (nothing a little white won't fix :D). I can't wait to see the rest of it!

Rita

[catchlight]

hehe thanks Liz :D I looooved doing the jumper, she's a real tomboy and loves strong colours and I really enjoyed doing the fluffy texture on the jumper :D

Thanks Rita :D hehe I have to get those eyes fixed before she gets home from her overnight stay or I'll be in big trouble :D She hates it when I do something a bit off on a portrait with her in it, she's the worst critic ever!

[AnnieJo]

Do you like working on drafting film? Is it faster than paper?

[brynmr]

Interesting flesh colors and really nice lighting you have going Wendy. Is your daughter really cross-eyed or is that your mistake?

[Natzke]

4 Hours?!?! Amazingly fast for the quality this is showing! Great work and I love the contrast in the jumper where the lights meet the shadowed areas and the color shifts from warm to cool. Thanks for sharing. :)

[fantaseepainter]

The red reflection under her chin is yummy!
Looks great keep going!

[catchlight]

Austelle, thanks! I think it's faster than paper just because of the saturation of colour you can get so quickly. I've only done a couple of portraits on it now, mostly I've used it for animal work but it's surprised me just how good it really is for those too :D

LOL thanks Tommy hehe :D Noooo she's not really cross eyed....cross but not cross eyed (she's 14 and all about grumpy!). It's entirely my mistake, hopefully it's better now but I don't think I'll be able to tell til I see it in thumbnail :D

Thanks Natzke :D I actually chose this ref because I loved the way the colour went from very warm on the left to very cool on the right, I'm pleased you noticed that! Luckily drawing film is verrrrrry fast to work on, you can get away with all sorts and can erase anything so it means you can risk making mistakes :D

Thankyou Sonja! I really liked the way the reds were shining on her face :D

Here's an update :D At least I can keep on at those eyes if they aren't right yet, thank goodness for easy erasing on film :D They aren't real good photo's as the sun's disappeared on me and things are glaring weirdly. Hopefully you can get the idea anyway.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-girl_wip_2.jpg

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-girl_wip_2_a.jpg

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-girl_wip_2_hair.jpg

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-girl_wip_2_textures.jpg

[catchlight]

The backgrounds not quite finished yet, it'll be a lot smoother in the end, it needs a lot more work yet :D

Oh gads, the poor kids still cross eyed! hehe

[catchlight]

okay NOW I think the eyes are right LOL. Or close anyway. It's too dark to get a good photo so I'll do a proper one tomorrow but I just wanted to make sure the eyes were in the right spot this time!

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-DSCF3150.jpg

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-DSCF3150a.jpg

[Amira]

When I turned on the computer this morning I was wondering when we'd see a new Wendy piece emerging - thanks for obliging! :wink2:

What a great portrait, her personality is really shining through!

I'm so impressed with how you did the skin (choice of colours) and the warm/cool colour change is amazing. There's so much to be learned here - thanks!
I wonder what the reference picture looked like, did it really show the colours? I'm sure you improved on the reference for sure, but I'm just trying to retrace your steps here....

He he, I just remembered the piece you did of your daughter in the 'on stage' setting, all glamouros and elegant - what a nice contrast this one is!

take care,
Amira


oh, btw: don't you just love Colin Firth! Though this is not his best role ever the movie would be worth watching just because of him...

[cindyv4]

Got kids and couldn't get on the compter till now.

Absolutally Wonderful!!!!:clap: :clap:
I love the way you capture the light. The skin tones are fantastic!!!!!
I'll have to try no flesh tones. It looks a lot more real.
Can't think of enough words, let alone enough I can spell:lol: , to let you know how beautiful this is. You really do exceptional work:D .
cindyv

[gordoiye]

this is wonderful, wendy - one of the best things you've done!

cheers,
gord

[catchlight]

LOL Amira! Oh yes, Colin Firth is such a visual treat, altogether that movie is a bit of a visual feast for one thing and another! He really suits the Vermeer hair too! Well the reference didn't show quite all the colours but it was enough to get my imagination going and make some up. Once I got the basic shading down I stopped looking at the reference (on her face anyway) and just went a bit nuts on the colours. I've discovered that so long as you have the value and temperature of the colour right, you can use pretty much any colour and have it still look real. It's quite exciting to experiment with! Here's the ref before cropping and adjusting the brightness and contrast etc.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-DSCF3122.jpg

Thankyou Cindy! :D It's one of the first I've done with the usual flesh tones tossed out, the only others were of dark skin tones on black paper, so it was a bit adventurous. I'll be doing it a lot more now though I think, I'm really rapt with it :D

[catchlight]

Thanks Gord! You made my day :D (erm evening, it's almost 2am...yikes!)

[TessDB]

Wonderful, Wendy!

Thanks for doing it as a WIP-- still wrestling with drafting film & seeing how someone else approaches it really helps! And I know it's an odd question... if you're using the back for anything, would you mind posting it, too?

Tess

ps-- love love love colin firth. Did you see the Pride & Prejudice version he was in? It's several years old now... In my head, he is now the definitive Mr. Darcy. Poor hubby. :D

[Amira]

Still awake??? - thanks for showing us the ref, I'll have a closer look at it regarding colours.
While I do get the concept of values (in theory at least) I must concentrate more on seeing temperature. Did you daughter already see it? Did she approve?

http://www.cosgan.de/images/more/schilder/213.gif : did you see Colin Firth in "Love actually" - that's a great movie and he's just adorable...

[Amira]

ps-- love love love colin firth. Did you see the Pride & Prejudice version he was in? It's several years old now... In my head, he is now the definitive Mr. Darcy. Poor hubby. :D

Well, I'm personally convinced that Jane Austen had Colin Firth in mind when writing P&P !!! http://www.cosgan.de/images/midi/liebe/d010.gif

He's just the best -well, the only!- Mr Darcy!! I'm sure I've seen the BBC version more than ten times (ehmm... yep, definitely more). Not only because of the famous pond scene, I love everything about it. P&P has been one of my favourite novels for since I first read it with 14, and I really think I imagined it just the way the BBC did....

Amira

[TessDB]

Uh, Wendy? sleep is a good thing, y'know?

You go tuck yourself in. Amira and I will continue chattering. Hope we don't keep you up... :lol: We'll try to keep the noise down...

http://www.cosgan.de/images/more/schilder/213.gif : did you see Colin Firth in "Love actually" - that's a great movie and he's just adorable...

Oh, I loved that movie. So did hubby. Probably something to do with his house-cleaner in the lake scene. :rolleyes:

Agreed. Jane was thinking of Colin Firth when she wrote P&P.

Tess

[wet]

Wendy you are a master when it comes to doing hair! Love the way you punched up the colors. :thumbsup: Wanda
PS: how did miss grumpy like it?

[Katydid15]

Wow! This is really good! Love her hair and her jeans. I know, sounds ironic, but I do. :)

[wet]

Coming back for a second look and I love the back lighting too. I personally love to draw thins with back light. Don't you love doing that? Wanda

[Rosa Weitzel]

Your becoming a master artist with the film, you have captured the mood and the feeling of the light coming in. Its one thing to draw well and another to be able to capture a mood for all of us to look at and injoy. I for one am so glad you got your pencils back to work.:thumbsup:


Rosa:wave:

[couturej]

This is a great piece! You've captured everything beautifully!:)

[catchlight]

Oh crikey Tess, definitive Mr Darcy's right! He's marvellous :D He's far more my kind of movie star, not the pretty boy type and far better looking than the Brad Pitts of this world. Oh, I haven't actually done anything on the back of this one but, I'll definitely take photo's next time I do because I do usually have to :D

hehe Amira, Ms Grumpy did see it and was most impressed, thank goodness I had the eyes fixed before she got home or I'd have been in big trouble. Oh yes I did see Love Actually, I'd missed it right through the movies, right through it being out on DVD until last week it was on TV and I looooved it :D I'd been wanting to see it but it was one of those that I'd never got the chance to. I thought Colin's story was the best one :D

Wanda thankyou! I am a bit of a hair freak hehe. I love drawing my daughters hair too, it's such a pretty colour and reflects loads of interesting colours into it, like the blues and reds in it in this one. It's a pity it costs me so much in chocolate to get her to pose...little mercenary!! And oh yes, I DO love backlighting! Strong lighting of any sort really but backlighting is my most favourite.

Thanks Kate....actually the jeans are my very favourite bit too I think hehe. Mainly because I wish I had a pair like them :D

Aww thankyou so much Rosa! That means a lot to me :D

Thankyou Janet! I had bunches of fun doing this one, I think I'm on a bit of a portrait thing at the moment :D

Well here's some better photo's of the finished piece. I'm going to get it scanned properly at my printers so that I can get some really good images of it. Film scans beautifully but it's not brilliant for photographing because it glares so much. I'm really quite pleased with this one in the end :D It had a lot of fun bits to do with the textures and colours.

Oh and an added extra photo at the end because I finished early last night and still had a couple of hours to kill :D



http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-girl_done.jpg

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-girl_done_a.jpg

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-girl_done_b.jpg

And....well you had to see it coming, I couldn't stand it anymore! I did this last night in a bit less than 5 hours including dinner break I think LOL. It's 8x10 on film too. What is it you're supposed to say? Girl with a pearl earring, after Vermeer or something?

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-girl_with_a_pearl_earring.jpg

[wet]

Oh cool Wendy! I drew her once too. (on black paper of course) Mine turned out to look alot like the village idiot.:lol: Wanda

[catchlight]

Black paper of course! :D I bet it didn't at all...look like the village idiot I mean! There's just something about that portrait isn't there? I really wanted my own to hang in my house so I HAD to do it. Believe it or not, I'm about to try Starry Night by Van Gogh, now THAT will be different! I just love it so much and want a nice full colour yummy version for my house too hehe.

[wet]

I have no doubt you'll pull it off. Make sure and show it to us when you finish. If it's not in cp show in OTLs. I can see you painting it really really big!:D I can't even imagine how you would go about it in cps? I am sure someone has tho.

[catchlight]

hehe it's almost a quarter done already :D It's so fast! I'm doing it 11x14 on film with cps, but I'm letting them get really blunt and fat and doing great big strokes to mimic the alla prima or whatever you call it. It won't be brilliant but it'll be colourful! hehe :d

[rasberry]

wow gee your a busy girl arent you!!!!! hmm do you ever sleep lol!!!
i think your portrait is fantastic!!! i have a question though.. still quite unsure about colour .. could you explain what colour temperature is?... you said i think something like it dosent matter what colour you use as long as the value and temperature are ok...
love your girl in a pearl earingas well.. cant believe how fast you work lol
Naomi

[catchlight]

Thanks Naomi :D

Well basically what I mean is that you know how blue is cool and red is warm, in it's most basic form. Well (admittedly this is all my theory so I have no idea if it's true!) I think that every colour has a temperature based on the amount of red or blue in it. If you have a look at a full range of oranges for instance, there are some that are very definitely rich warm oranges and some that are cooler, despite the redness that orange has in it, usually the lighter brighter ones. Even reds and blues do this, there are cooler reds and warmer blues. Some of it has to do with the value of it, whether it's dark or light but also the colour combination that went into creating that colour.

So what I find is that you could actually totally throw out all the colours that are obvious in a piece and use a fist full of colours instead that make no sense whatsoever but you can still create a realistic looking piece so long as you keep the values right and temperatures too (in the case of this piece anyway). Obviously it's within reason but it can be done.

I think the temperature and value are pretty similar, but I tend to find that it makes the most difference to how light works. For instance, in this portrait in the eyelids above the eye, under the nose, lips etc where there's light that's quite bright reflecting up, I used a really cool orange. In the shadows I went for deeper warmer oranges. On the right side of her face where there was cool light coming in, I switched from using bright oranges to bright light blues which were cooler still and about the same value as the oranges.

You can see the difference between these two pictures, left is warm, right is cool.
http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-eye.jpg http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-cheek.jpg

Whereas if you look at the values here's in BW, you can see that the values are about the same, it's only that the temperature that's changed.

http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-cheekbw.jpg http://www.wetcanvas.com/Community/images/11-Nov-2006/57873-eye_bw.jpg

I'm not sure if that made a lot of sense, it's kind of tricky to explain and it's only a theory I came up with myself *blush*

[rasberry]

thankyou so much.. im going to have to reread this to concrete this in my head for some reason i find colour theory confusing but i do understand what you are saying.. and as for it "only " being a theory you made up.. lol you should be proud that you have the insight!! quite frankly i would love to hear any theories of yours in the vain attempt to try and create something as good as yours !!!!!
Thanks again forthe very detailed explanation!!! it really means a lot
Naomi

[catchlight]

Aww gosh Naomi, I'm more than happy to try and explain :D I'm just not terribly good at it sometimes hehe. I have all these idea's in my head, but getting them out so they make sense is quite a different matter!

[rasberry]

lol i know what you mean.. my partner thinks i speak an entirely different language to the rest of the world lol...everything just gets put down to don't worry its just your arty side coming out lol
Naomi

[catchlight]

Well I like that explanation, I'm artistic not incoherant! LOL :D :D :D

[dotb]

:clap: :clap: :clap: Wonderful, as usual!

[catchlight]

Thanks Dot :D

[cindyv4]

Just beautiful, and glad your daughter liked it too.