Not final - in progress
 

How am I doing so far? The color in this photo is a little saturated. The background is blue/black and lighter on the left of the image, which doesn't show up in the photo. I have done some refinements on the ear and the right arm and hand. I will post another photo when finished.

Portrait is oil on linen, 24" x 36".

Thanks for looking.

Alicia,

Do you have a facial closeup to post?

Cynthia,

Not yet. I will take more photos tomorrow with better light.

Darling!
 

Alicia, this is a wonderful start. I like the way you have given a lot if space around the figure, especially at the top. It is a very nice composition with a believable transition from light to dark.

I see a few (to me) problem areas. One might have to do with the scan.

A. The color (the scan?). There is a very strong yellow element, the curtain. It should be somehow balanced by its complement, purple. There should be soft purple undertones in the nightgown shadows and the background. It also helps if you bring a bright color accent of one of the colors into the painting. I am not sure where you would show it here; just remember it for the future.

It might help to place the garment on a form in similar or the same lighting with that drape. That helps to give you subtle color information not available on a photo. This has helped me adjust skin tones as well when the model is not there.

B. There is a very strong crescent shaped swathe on the cheek. It seems to separate itself from the form, not define it. Squint at your reference to check its accuracy. See if you can soften it up a bit.

C. The edges, check them. Leave some sharp and soften others, especially where the arm and the nightie go into darkness.

D. The drawing of the eyes. The one on our left seem off and the one on our right needs to have its drawing checked too. It is hard to tell without reference. I always have trouble with the far eye. It is the most difficult to draw.

All in all, a stellar start. Good Luck.

Alicia,

Look at the right side of the painting from top to bottom. On the bottom the curtain seems to lap over the wood frame of the door. As your eye travels up your shadowing changes and it appears that the door begins to lap over the curtain.

Alicia,

On the cheek on the shadow side of the face, the value has gotten too light in that "crescent shaped" area. There is reflected light, but the light in that shadow must remain a middle value, albeit a lighter middle value than the rest of the shadow. You have crossed over and made it a light value, the same value as the front of the face. This confuses the eye, and the head does not round out as it should.

Very nice start!

Peggy

Thanks for the comments, Sharon, Mike and Peggy. Sharon, the scan had the color of the drapes a little too orange and there is some purple shadowing in the dress. It is hard to see in the scan.

I will also darken the cresent shape on the shadow side of the face.

The eyes have driven me crazy. I have checked them again and again. I even printed a transparency and placed it over them and they look just like the print out. I will check again.

I will post new pictures when finished. Also, I will post a reference of the face.

Thanks.

In the reference photo the little girl's head is pointing downward somewhat but in the painting the axis of the head is absolutely vertical. That's what's throwing the rest of your drawing off, including the eyes.

The edges of the girl's right cheek and forehead should almost be vertical. Once I rotated the painted image to match the reference, everything else fell into place and it seemed easier to me to see where the drawing of the eyes needed to be changed. Does that help?

That's it, Michelle! In the original photo, she was leaning forward a little bit and the Mom asked me if I could straighten it up. Maybe I can ask them to hang it crooked. Just kidding.

She is gazing downward a little. I did some more work on her tonight. The only way I can see to correct this is to repaint the whole portrait. I did some more work on it tonight and I think it looks better. I will post when I take the photo.

Thanks.

It also seems as if the face in the painting is not wide enough, though that could appear to be the case if you photographed the painting at a slight angle.

Can you post the whole body reference photo so I can see what she looked like before you "straightened her up a little bit"? I don't think you need to repaint the whole thing. You just need to keep the features of the face in alignment with whatever axis of the head you're using.

Of course, lots of "straightening up" can throw off your light and shadow areas from what they would naturally be, but I don't think that's the problem here.

A helpful tool
 

Alicia,

I will not comment on the painting itself, but would like to suggest a trick that has helped me with shapes and values when comparing a photo reference with a painting in progress. It's a simple trick, which you can implement using your photo editor.

1) Open your painting in one window of your photo editor, and your photo in a second window.

2) Drag the window with the photo over the window with the painting so that a critical reference point, such as an eye, lines up.

3) Resize the photo so the dimensions of the face exactly match the face in the painting.

4) Use Ctrl+Tab to flip back and forth between the two images. Adjust one window for optimum placement.

(Re: Ctrl+Tab. My system is Windows based. If you use Mac, your key combinations are probably different and you should consult a Mac expert).

You will immediately be able to see the differences between the two, because they are overlaid.

I've cropped and resized the images you've posted to demonstrate the technique. You'll find them below.

I've cropped them to the same size, with the photo placed according to the collar, then resized according to the top of the ribbon. All you have to do is drag the photo window exactly over the painting window, and Ctrl+Tab away.

I hope this helps,
Will

Using Photoshop Opacity Feature
 

Another wonderful tool that might help is on Photoshop, labeled Opacity. Open your original photo. Then scan in a photo of the work in progress. Make sure the images on the screen are the same dimensions.

Copy the work in progress, then switch to the original photo and open

Those of you gifted and blessed folks with computer savvy would be welcomed like liberators in the Computer section of the Forum.

Any advices as to procedures that you regularly and productively use would, I guarantee, be gratefully received there as well.

Thanks Will and Enzie. I will play with this in Photoshop. Wish I had known about this before now. Not sure how much I can change it without repainting the whole face.

Alicia,

It's of course up to you whether it's necessary to "repaint the whole face", but if that's what you decide needs to be done, don't be afraid of it. I've had so many instances of thinking that I was okay with a piece (tired of it, even), and then had an instructor say, "You can push this. Keep looking." And in those next couple of hours, the "little" changes completely transformed the work that I'd already decided was close enough.

I've also said, "I can't move the eye, I'll never get it that good again." And of course my instructor immediately corrected me. "What do you mean, you can't?. You have to."

One of the greatest gifts I ever received in this was from a poorly paid but talented and dedicated instructor who led some of us around to different plein air sites. I was frustrated with my realization that I'd mispainted a number of things in my maritime scene, and I proposed putting on a new canvas and trying again. She said no. "We're not here to start over," she told me. "We're here to solve problems."

I know only too well how hard it is to go back into a piece and make changes, but if you're convinced that they need to be made, you won't regret it, and if you don't make changes that you're sure should be made, you might be second-guessing yourself for a long time.