Anna
 

Hello everybody,

This is a portrait that I am struggling with. I don't seem to be 'capturing' her, there is something missing that I cannot put my finger on.

I have thought carefully about her characteristics, which are that she tends to hold her mouth at an angle and lift the eyebrow above at the same time.

She seem to have somehow lost her youthfulness in the painting.

I have tidied up her hair at her request.

It is, of course unfinished in a few areas. I feel that I have to be satisfied with her face before I move on to the other areas.

Can anybody guide me as to where I am going wrong?

I have attached the reference photograph.

Thank you, :)
Barbara

Close up of here face

Reference photograph

Hello Barbara,

A few comments I would like to make. Because you made the part of her face above the eyebrow on the left much lighter than in the photograph, it appears to be more massive; the form of her head changes this way in the painting.

I think much of the 'older' look has to do with the area on the left side (for us, left) of her face. The lip below is livelier in the photograph. Changing the form a bit and adding highlight will make her smile a bit on the painting, like she does on the photograph. In the source photograph, the shadow of her cheek (left of the nose and mouth) is a bit darker, therefore she has a livelier appearance in the photo. Also, the white of her right eye (for us, right) is a bit too light on the right side. You changed her hair a bit, but I think that the form of her chin and the shadow on the left side of her face in the photo is a bit different than how you painted it. Therefore, her face looks a bit 'sharper' in the photograph.

Did you make the source photograph yourself? Her eyes are very dark, I would advise you to make source photographs which show the eyes clearly.

Greetings,
Peter

Dear Peter,

Thank you for taking the time to look and comment Peter. Everything that you have said makes sense and I will act on it today.

Since posting this, I have discovered (from another artist, a way of using Photoshop to compare the stage you are at in your painting with the reference photograph. You have probably used or heard of it...using transparencies to overlay and compare?

Well, it is very new to me, and it will prove invaluable in my portrait work.

I will post the new improved Anna when it is finished. With the help of my new discovery,it should be this week.

Thank you again Peter.

Barbara,

If you use the "search messages" feature, and search on tranparency you should find some earlier posts on this, probably in the Computer Corner.

Hello everybody.

Thank you Cynthia for your advise. There is quite a lot in the 'search messages' on transparencies and I will peruse them all.

I have been practicing with Photoshop today. It has highlighted a few problem areas on her face.

I have worked today to correct some of the areas and I think that I have nearly completed her face, that is unless you can see anything else that I may have missed. A fresh pair of eyes can nearly always pick up something that has been missed.

The photograph is not very good, it was photo'd in artificial light as the weather in Belgium is so bad today and it has hardly been light all day, so the colours are not true.

I will continue on her body tomorrow.

Thank you for looking.

Barbara,

On second thought, I'm afraid you're going to be running into a lot of discussion regarding photographic transparencies. I just know what you mentioned has been brought up a couple of times on the Forum. I found one of them and all it said was that the artist printed the transparency and overlaid the painting. There really wasn't any technical information. So, perhaps that not particulary helpful. Sorry!

Transparencies

I have occasionally used computer-generated inkjet transparencies to double check my drawing/proportions and find it a very helpful aid. I use this device after years of life drawing training and practice. I still attend a local figure workshop to keep my hand and eye able, and cannot stress too strongly the need to develop this skill. It will help you learn what lies behind the shadows, hair, clothing, etc., and to better understand how they connect and how to capture those same forms in your composition.

Using conventional or digital photographs which I then scan and edit for my reference material, I begin my freehand drawing/layout on canvas until I am pleased with the composition, proportions, sizes, and the spirit of the painting. At this point I create a very high contrast black and white of the face in Photoshop and save it at the same size as the canvas drawing. From this file I make a black print on ink jet transparency film. 3M, among others, makes this film for use with overhead projectors. You can now overlay this film to your drawing to make certain that you have not made critical drawing errors. Don't be tempted to project the drawing to begin with as this will yield a static copy that even the most seasoned pro would avoid.

You have made some good corrections and have done a good job with a very difficult photograph. I can't imagine any circumstances under which I would tackle a portrait with the lighting/shadows you are working with. I would suggest that you lighten the upper lip and show more of its form. Otherwise it adds to the hardness/aging of the subject.

I attended a computer graphics workshop outside of Brussells and will never forget my visit to Brugge on our free weekend, and now go out of my way to find Belgium beers.

Thank you Jim. I'm glad that I'm not the only artist who uses the 'Photoshop assistant'! It is very new to me and I wasn't sure whether it might be regarded as cheating.

In my humble opinion, anything that can help with my venture into portraits I would not hesitate in using. After all, proportions have to be spot on, otherwise it will never look right.

I hadn't realised until I used it how far out my drawing was! Besides all the little things that were slightly out on her face, her hand was way out, and I mean way, way out!

I think that I was concentrating so much on the face that I ignored the obvious.

Anyway, I will stop enthusing about my Photoshop assistant and get back to the portrait.

I have done as much as I can do until next week because I have a 'bread and butter' watercolour to complete before the end of the week.

I will attach a pic of where it stands at this moment, just in case anybody spots something. Anything that you can suggest to improve it further will be much appreciated.

Oh, by the way Jim, about the Belgian beers. Chimay is my favorite and I love it. And yes, Brugge is wonderful. Unfortunately, I live in Mons which is about an hour away. Mons is depressing! Can't wait to move back to the UK!

Thank you again, Jim, for looking and all your useful advise. You never know, one day I may be an expert and I may be able to help you out!

Barbara

Well, I will be very short on this. I see two main obstacles that are giving you trouble. One seems to be a lack of planning (or a appearance of it). The composition is very nice but your choice of cropping is less then desirable. Always try and avoid cutting off hands and bare arms legs or feet. Now if you cropped, or used a vignette to soften the cropping, then it could work better. The second obstacle is your lighting: the form on the dark side of the face is not well defined, and it is obviously giving you trouble. It is of utmost importance to control your lighting and not let it control you. If your light is not defining your form you can't paint it.

I did a few things here to show a few choices that might have improved your painting. Now I did not worry about being accurate her, just to show how a different lighting might have helped.

If you look at your photo you can see that the reflected light does offer some of the effect that I show in the 2 light source example, but it is not as defined. In the 2 light sources that I show, your darkest values would be down the center. And I exaggerated a cooler light on your subjects left with a warm light on the right. In the single source example, I show how, if you had some light on the left cheek, it would help define the line of the nose and the plane as it turns around the head to the left.

Hello Michael.

First of all, I would like to thank you for taking the time to look and comment on my painting.

The demonstration on lighting effects was very helpful and informative.

Yes, the lighting on the reference photograph is not what it should be, I agree. However, she liked the photograph and her position or stance in it so much that I decided to tackle it anyway. I did have a couple of better photographs of her to help me with details, I realise that this is not ideal but I did consider it a challenge. As I am still in the early stages of my venture into portraiture, I thought that taking on a challenge such as this would be good experience. Was this wrong?

As for the cropping that you mention. I was advised by another portrait artist about composition in portraits who me completely different advice on this! He said that to make a better and more interesting composition in a portrait you should try to crop a little of the subject out of the frame which will, in effect 'lead the eye into the painting'.

Anyway, I did put in some planning some thought into the composition, but I probably misunderstood what he was saying. I will have to read up more on portraiture composition before I tackle my next one.

I still have quite a lot to do on the painting before it is 'put to bed', and I cannot get back to it until after next Wednesday.

I will, if all goes according to plan, post the final version by next weekend. Hopefully, it will get past the perusal of all you wonderful experts without any hitches! Fingers crossed!

Thank you once again Michael.


Barbara

Hello Barbara,

In a situation like this I would prefer to make a new series of photographs, and all would be variations on the photograph the model likes so much but with the proper lighting, so I, as the portait-painter can feel satisfied also about the quality of the picture, while the model sees the pose that he or she prefers.

As a portrait painter, I feel that I need to guide the model through the process, so the person who commissions the work feels satisfied about the pose and the way he/she is being portrayed, on the other hand, there are certain things that I want to get right in the source-photograph, like good lighting. Although I understand that it's not always possible to do that when someone insists on using a photograph he or she likes very much.

Peter

Ann finished & client happy
 

Hello to everybody in the Forum.

First of all, my thanks to Peter and everybody for taking up their time to help me with my painting. I realise that the reference photograph was not of a good standard and this made it difficult for everybody to offer their advice. The advantage that I had over you was that I actually know the subject, and I also have a lot of other better quality shots of her.

That being said, her parents are delighted with the result and told me that I have captured the look that they wanted so badly, i.e. the crooked smile!

I think that I am reasonably satisfied with the result given the problems that I have had, however, where I feel that I can improve it is to soften some of the edges more than I already have (this was difficult). Is there any way that you can successfully give the impression of a painting being done in one session thereby the edges naturally resulting in being soft?

Unless you think that there is something that is glaringly obviously wrong with it I think that I will put this one to bed.

I have certainly learned a lot with this portrait, which will help with the next one which is already being planned.

Thank you again

Barbara