I didn't see your post earlier Peter, but this is the progress I made today, the colors are still brighter but the opaqueness is starting to take shape.

Each time I work on the skirt, it pretty much has to dry before the next application of paint, so it is coming along the slowest.

I also wanted to mention I took extra time to set these shots up with my little level. It is still not perfectly square if you look closely at the canvas edges, maybe somebody can post a trick to this in the photographing your paintings section. I think just zooming in, is just hiding the problem.

Here is the close up of the face:

Beth,

I think you have one of the same problems I do with my Sony DSC P72.

I'm no camera maven, but I've noticed that the lens warps badly at the edges of the frame. Centering the picture on the frame but not taking it to the edges helps considerably, and then I crop in Photoshop. When I crop, I can prove to myself that the picture is indeed now back to square. I can see along the bottom edge that you have a curvature similar to the one I get.

I'll do a few shots and post to the camera area showing all the hoops I'm jumping through with this puppy. Not today, but soonish.

If the lens warps badly at the outside edges you need to be shooting with a longer lens. Zoom in a few steps if your camera will do that.

Hi Beth,

I have the feeling that the mouth is too much placed too the left, but I'm not sure, since the source-photographs are so small on my monitor.

Does painting the piece not become too much of a juggling-act between the different source-photographs? - The procedure of making an underexposed and an overexposed photograph may create too much of an excuse to 'not get it right' in the actual photograph. (the others then have the same problem, only under- and overexposed)

Personally, I like to have just one good source-photograph in colour, which I feel is absolutely right in the pose, lighting etcetera.

In this case (back to school) I have the feeling that the shadows are too dark in the actual source-photograph, and that it may have been better if more direct light had reached the right side of ther face.

Peter

Hi Peter,

My concept with this piece was all about the attitude of a 15 year old girl - which is basically scary! So I wanted a few dark shadows, sloppy dress (belly hanging out) and mascara under her eyes. Usually I get too much light in the shadow area.

My thoughts on my reference is it works for me. I feel like I can never have enough. My optimal is to have the person sitting in front of me, but if I can't, I'll want everything else. Even if I had color photos which I'll have, too, I will want them over/under exposed, it's the only way you can see the extra detail in the shadow and highlights. I'll have the clothes, shoes and accessories in my studio, too, plus the backdrops. I blow my reference up to size and put it 2 feet away from my easel so I can look at it like I would a model. This is just what works for me. Show me with some examples what you've been doing, I think it's always interesting to see.

Michele and Lisa, we need to take the camera lens discussion to another area, because this always confuses me. I have never understood how just zooming in, isn't just hiding the problem - how about a demo Michele? Please oh please, it would be great to learn to do this properly so I could send out for slides. My shots are not only warped they are flat and really do my art a disadvantage, those who have seen it in person can really attest to this.

I think I can answer your "zooming-in" question briefly without it needing to go to a whole new thread.

You don't cut off part of the image, you stand further back when you use the zoom on your lens, so you still get the whole painting (along with part of the easel, wall, etc.)

Ever seen a "fish-eye-lens" photo in a magazine, or a shot taken with a really wide angle lens? That is an extreme version of what most point-and-shoot camera lenses do when the zoom setting is not used. The un-zoomed setting is a wide angle setting. It bulges out everything around the edges of the shot.

To eliminate that effect zoom in a few notches on your camera. (You may want to read the camera manual. Zoom in until it is between a 50mm to 100mm setting on your lens.) Stand far enough back that you can still see the whole painting in your viewfinder and click away!

Hi Elizabeth
 

I take it that your painting is to reflect the 15 year old attitude (bringing back horrid memories), not a portrait per se of your daughter. I have gone a little spell without commisioned work lately, so to keep handy at the craft, I've been working with a model who is willing to dress and pose for any conceptual painting I conjure up. She, at first, was worried about facing certain ways as to project the best likeness. However, after a few "test sketches" I convinced her that it is not her likeness that I'm after, but a concept of character that she is mimicking.

I like conceptual paintings and yours is coming along great.

Michele,

I'm going to be a bit of a gadfly and the one who asks questions for the benefit of others. The term "zoom in" is a bit ambiguous, perhaps. I assume you mean zoom in on the painting (making it look bigger in the viewfinder), and not zoom back into the camera (that is, retract the lens). You and I know "zoom in" and "zoom out" from our Photoshop menus, but I wanted to make sure others were clear on that.

By the way, for those shooting with digital cameras that have a macro feature, be sure to check your manuals for the proper zoom adjustment. You might think you should "zoom in" (make the subject bigger in the viewfinder). With my Sony, at least, that's the opposite of what you do on macro.

There's a whole swarm of gadflys around here.

A camera that cannot zoom in or out has a "fixed focal length" lens. Most inexpensive cameras come with a fixed focal length and it will tend to go toward the wide angle. The typical point and shoot camera may have a 35mm or 45mm focal length lens. If you shoot your art work with this type of focal length, whether it's a $50 lens or a $1000 lens, film or digital camera, I think it will warp the edges. The bigger the canvas the more evident this will be.

Keep the face of the canvas as close to perpendicular to the direction of the lens as possible. Set the focal length (zooming the lens in or out) to 80mm to 100mm, then position the camera as close as you can to the canvas still seeing border to border, and shoot.

I think that's the way it works.