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January 7, 2020 at 7:57 pm #482378
The photo is from 1945 I think, of my husband’s grandmother when she was fifteen. Apparently she sneaked the red lipstick out of the house to wear that day at the fair. With the painting I had to guess at the coloring and background.
Oil on canvas board, 12 in. x 16 in.
January 7, 2020 at 8:02 pm #930112Opps, forgot to add that constructive criticism is welcome.
January 8, 2020 at 3:59 am #930106Nice painting but some proportions are wrong. The eyebrow on the viewers left is not the right shape and comes down too far on the right. The eyebrow on the viewer’s right starts too close in. Both eyebrows should be wider apart. You’ve painted a beautiful but the smile is not wide enough. I think the chin is a little too narrow. As one instructor told me, “measure, measure and measure again.”
Quwatha Valentine
January 8, 2020 at 5:47 am #930113I agree. I was having some issues with it. Also, being fairly new to portraiture, I was pretty clueless as to how to address these problems as they came along, mainly winging it and hoping for the best. I’d drawn up a grid for general placement and free-handed from there. As I went I was losing some of the personality in the attempt to not have such distinctive eyebrows look oddly villainous. It had been looking better, but when I checked it out in the mirror, the layout felt very wrong, so I adjusted based on the reversed image. A bit of a mess, most likely due to lack of study. I actually hadn’t heard too many methods of measurement for this so, am currently perusing YouTube to see if I can find any hints on good practices there. Might be worth a stop at the library as well. Thanks so much for pointing this out, definitely gave me a direction to look further into.
January 8, 2020 at 2:04 pm #930110Hi. I’ve been having the exact same problems getting proportions and likeness right. It looks like you are having the same tendency to be cautious, or conservative, with angles and distances as I do. I noticed yesterday that I almost always sketch curves a little less sharp than they really are and my diagonal lines are slightly more vertical than they should be. All those slight changes add up to some strange final proportions. But I don’t yet know how to correct these things in practice, though.
Even so, I love your color choices, in the clothing especially.
Experimental artist.
My Portfolio
My InstagramJanuary 9, 2020 at 11:20 am #930114Hi, Thanks for the comment. It is strangely empowering/comforting to hear that I’m not the only one working on different aspects. Though I did pop onto your pages and had a hard time finding evidence of it. They all seemed very well done to me. (I loved the idea of the clay.) Maybe my eyes are not trained as they should be either. Out of curiosity, did you come up with any strategies to improve what you’d noticed? I’d thought of working on my drawing skills, doing studies in realism, and maybe touching into the abstract a little to help loosen up the tendency to be conservative/scared.
January 9, 2020 at 12:35 pm #930108I think the biggest thing you are having trouble with is using a very poor reference photo. It is a really nice photo. At first I thought it was Judy Garland.
It’s really hard to see exactly what you’re looking at. I’ve used poor reference photos too. And I’m always sorry. But sometimes you just don’t have a choice, as in your case.
Some of the things mentioned that are issues stem from the photo, such as the eyebrows being too close to the nose. That should be a shadow as it gets to the nose bridge rather than a line.
You have a really nice start on this if you want to go further with it. Put in more contrast in the face – darken shadows, put in lighter lights. You actually have those contrasts in the neck. Don’t just add white to make highlights, use a light yellow ochre, possibly. Without knowing the colors you used, it’s difficult to give suggestions. The lip color looks very good. Remember, teeth are not white but flesh color. And the teeth need a shadow at the top from the lips. Your clothing colors look really nice.
It’s a great & meaningful painting.
If you have a photo editing program, it’s very helpful in poor photos to edit them: adjusting contrast, etc. One of my favorite tools is posterize (Photoshop). I like to make a grid over the image so you can see where your measurements are off. I use the grid lines in Photoshop, but you could put a transparent sheet with grid lines over the photo.
BTW, I am an amateur painter & don’t really know much. These things I am still working on, also.
Maybe you could find an image of Judy Garland in that pose that you could get some ideas from. Just a thought.
Hope I have given you some ideas you can use.
PamJanuary 10, 2020 at 7:59 pm #930115Thanks, Prism914, those comments are really helpful. I’d had my suspicions about the picture, especially at points were I was going cross-eyed trying to figure out what I was looking at (like the background). I’m still learning what makes a good reference and what does not. I think on the first block in the face had more similarity to the throat, but I think I gave up on it too quickly. Unfortunately, I’ve already given this one to my mother-in-law for Christmas, so any lessons I glean will have to be applied to my next one. I think with my colors I’d used burnt umber, yellow ochre, titanium white, and touches of cadmium red hue (gasp, yeah I’ve since learned that hues mix unpredictably), and maybe Indian red. Not as subtle as I would hope for if I knew more about the colors. The advice on the mouth was good. I’d started with a titanium and tinted it, can’t remember what with but obviously it wasn’t enough to budge it much. And you’re right…I’d forgotten about the shadows. I haven’t gotten into photo shop much yet at all. Might be fun to learn and play with. Thank you so much for the insight!
January 10, 2020 at 8:40 pm #930109You are so welcome!
On to your next painting! We learn more with each painting we do.
Painting is so much fun, even if it is a challenge. If it wasn’t challenging,
I wouldn’t even bother.January 10, 2020 at 10:59 pm #930111I’ve been trying out every method I can find. So far, using a ruler or pencil to see how a feature lines up with other features has seemed the most helpful. I was thinking that maybe getting or making an angle ruler and practicing drawing angles from pictures freehand, then using the tool to check and see how far off I am and what I need to correct would help train my eye. So I’m planning to try that one out tomorrow.
I also think maybe gesture drawing might help with bravery and loosening up.
Experimental artist.
My Portfolio
My InstagramJanuary 11, 2020 at 7:42 am #930107An understanding of proportion is especially important when working with less than perfect reference- and this often happens. That understanding will help clarify where things should be, even if the image is soft or dark. There is much available online for proportion (I recommend Loomis). You may tackle portraiture in steps: 1. Drawing, 2. Value, 3. Color, 4. Etc.- this will make it much more manageable. Also at the start, avoid mechanical means like rulers and dividers in favor of improving your eye, drawing skills, and speed. Be patient!
Ken Tiessen
www.KenTiessenArt.com
Comments or Critiques welcomed...always! -
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