I'm back to Steve's face again. His glasses were not the same size, eyes were too far apart, and his mouth too high. I've had fun with all the hair, different textures and colors. I'm repairing the very dark area on the shadow side of his nose, I'll be lightening it, and his left eye still looks off to me.

Jean

Hi,

I decreased the size of Steve's eye (left) again, and finally he looks okay. Last night I had too much fun with the lumps, bumps, veins, etc. in his left arm. I wanted to exaggerate his arms but may have gone too far. I still have to add hair though so I'm unsure.

Jean

There are shadows on the upper canvas, please disregard.

Looking pretty good, Jean. I

Thanks Steven,

I'll do everything you mentioned on the background today. This is the first time I've tried using raw umber and ivory black to create the shadow areas. This may account for the lack of contrast. In all my other experiments I've used a compliment which really bumped up the vibrancy compared to this one. It was probably a poor choice for an outdoor scene, but I learned a lot. Instead of using a violet for the shadow area of the shirt (underarm), I added raw umber to deepen the color. In the bluejeans I used ivory black for the shadows and folds, again I would have used violet, pthalo green, and burnt sienna for the darks. There is also more sinking in, which I don't get using compliments, so varnish will be mandatory on this one.

All in all though this has been enjoyable and very informative. I've struggled more with color on this one than any other I've done, forcing myself to stick with the pigments I chose. Raw umber has been my least used pigment, I've come to appreciate it more.

Thanks Steven, I always value your opinion.

Jean

And we have color!

Yesterday I watched this portrait come to life as I deepened the sky and water. When Tom (my husband ) walked in from work he stopped immediately and commented that he didn't know what I'd done, but it looked so different and so alive that he was amazed.

What do you think, Steven?

Jean

Wonderful. Made a huge difference, didn't it.

Can't say it too many times -- color gets the credit, but value does the work.

Congratulations. I think you've got a keeper.

Thanks so much Steven.

Okay, okay, value not color. I meant that with increasing the value of the sky and water, Steve just seemed to pop off the canvas. This posted a litle dark, but I'm sure you can see the huge difference. Adding the lighter grasses and leaves around the figure will also bring him right up front.

Cheers and more cheers!

Jean

Yes, I understood, and I was oversimplifying. Of course the new look is a product both of the adjustment in values and the intensifying of some of the color. The important point is that both of these alterations worked to increase contrast, which created depth -- which is what you needed here, in this landscape piece.

Time for a cold Leiney, don't you think?

A celebration is in order! Chocolate is on the menu.

Jean

Hello all,

Except for tweaks, I'm all done. I can see that I need to work on his right arm, the highlights look more like a washboard than an arm. And the top of his left hand still doesn't look right. I'm happy with the landscape though, thank you Steven.

Jean

Hopefully this post for color accurately. It's sunny today with lots of snow, I seem to have problems with consistent color reproduction. Maybe it's time I learned how to use the white balance adjustment on my camera instead of the preset cloudy, auto, daylight etc. In my photo program this is close to the original. But when posted often the saturation is way too high.