WIP-Hannah
 

This piece is intended to go to a local frame shop, along with some business cards, to hopefully generate some commission interest.

This is my first more traditional, as opposed to figurative, portrait, and my first that is (near) life-size. I didn't realize before how much more impact a life-size piece has - this has been really fun to work on. It is (obviously, I guess!) a work in progress, but I am hoping to finish it by the 15th.

As this will be a fairly visible piece, I am trying to keep it fairly simple in hopes that I won't look back on it in a couple of years and cringe! Please feel free to comment or critique - I know I've got a lot to learn yet.

'Hannah'
20" x 16"
Acrylic on Canvas
(still planning to try a portrait in oils some time, but currently have a much higher comfort level in acrylic)

and the reference photo

WIP Update
 

I think I'm mostly done with the background/clothing here and am ready to start on her. How're the edges where her clothing meets the chair, the background etc.? Do her shoulders read as too flat? Any thoughts appreciated!

Hi Terri,

This is a lovely girl. You have the right marketing idea - displaying a portrait of a little girl is a good move to get business. If you're going to do this kind of thing again, I'd dress her up a bit more, something more formal than a t-shirt. My personal rule of thumb is: t-shirts outside only; more formal clothing can go anywhere (including on the grass).

You might want to take photos of this painting in its stages and display them with the portrait. People would find it interesting that you start with a bright blue underpainting.

You have the drawing down very well here. I'm looking forward to seeing your progress on this.

Linda - Thanks so much for the encouraging feedback! I've no experience with marketing at all, and this will probably be the only thing I put out there, for awhile anyway. We'll see what kind of response it gets! :sunnysmil The idea of displaying the portrait with some 'process' photos is very interesting. I've taken some along the way so that would be feasible - maybe initial underpainting and an intermediate stage together with the finished portrait? Would it be tacky to put something like that on one side of a postcard with a little blurb describing it and perhaps a pricelist on the back? You know - something that people could take with them if they were interested?

Here's where she's at now... I've still got work to do on some of the color & transitions on the arms but am planning to start fleshtones into the face Tuesday... and will finalize all fleshtones (arms and face) together once the face is caught up to the arms.

Wow Terri - you're doing this all with acrylics? That's wonderful. How will you modify the transitions? You obviously have a lot of experience to work with - do you have a set method or do you go with the flow? Do you save colors to work back in as glazes so you can modify the edges? Which brand of paint do you use?

I like the edge quality you're getting in the low contrast shadow areas. I just switched to oils a year ago - I was under the impression that they were more toxic than they are, and wasn't aware of safe but effective solvents like Turpenoid natural. (No flake white though, sorry Steven). I painted in acrylics for about 15 years but was never able to get the effects you're getting which are nearly oil-like - what's your secret?

Lisa

Just don

Yes, I can usually restrain myself from eating my paints, but I don't have such great luck with my 1 year old. Or my 8 year old for that matter.

Terri, I just re-read the other thread where you said you were thinking to order some oils from Dick Blick. Did you get them? Did you try them?

I agree with most of what Steven said about the process being different, but would like to point out that his observations are part of the charm and challenge of acrylics. Your overcoming these challenges will make working in oils a breeze in some ways - and you'll see clearly a whole new set of challenges.

Still, I'm wondering how you do what you do!

Steven - Thanks so much for your thoughts! Usually I do work all around a painting but this is the first time I'm using an underpainting. And I think I spent so much effort to achieve the likeness, that I started in on the background as sort of a light, non-stress relief. Then at some point, I started avoiding the face, (you're right! :o) because I do think getting it to look 'real' will be the most difficult. I had meant to at least do all the skin tones (arms and face) together but somehow still wasn't ready to mess with the face when I did the arms yesterday! Well, I can hardly avoid it anymore! Hopefully it'll still all come together.

Lisa - I'm a little bit overwhelmed by your comments! Thank-you :sunnysmil

I think the only 'secret' I've got is pure determination to get it looking the way I want it to, regardless of how much time it takes. So far I've invested 38 hours in this piece, I'm not sure how that compares to someone painting a similar piece in oils, but I gather oils would be quicker? I'm using Liquitex high-viscosity acrylics. When I want soft transitions, I'm painting the base colors in first then painting over it with paint that's been watered down (sometimes to what looks like my kids' water colors out of the little plastic box). Or I'll dry brush over an area, then use just a wet brush to spread that around (or a moist paper towel to pull it off if I don't like it). I'm not saving colors (but probably should!), but use a fairly limited palette and know what I was mixing to get certain colors so that I can get back to the same color (or close).

Lisa - As far as trying the oils, I've yet to do that. I have painted in oils before - years ago, and not portraits. Switched to acrylics because they seemed so much easier to work with. I'll give it another shot and let you know how it goes. I may just be an odd duck who prefers acrylics. :bewildere

I find oils to be MUCH easier to work with than acrylics and I was first taught to paint in acrylic. I don't think oils would necessarily be quicker though.

I wanted to comment on your marketing idea of creating a postcard of this image. I don't think it would be tacky at all and in fact I'd highly recommend it. Check out Modern Postcard (at http://www.modernpostcard.com ) They're fast, cheap and do good quality work.

As for what to put on the postcard, I'd make the finished image almost fill one side of the card, with a small area that has your name and something about the fact that these are paintings. People assume that you're a portrait photographer unless they look at your postcards closely.

On the back put your contact info and a space for mailing info (Modern Postcard has sample layouts) and a bit of info about prices. Something like "Prices start at $....." Then clients can contact you for more information.

Use these postcards as your business card, give them to everyone you know and you're on your way!

Then try not to think of it as a face right now. It's the same process -- is it the right shape, the right color (hue), and the right value? -- that you've used in fashioning the fabrics. When all those questions are answered "yes", you've got the face.

I kind of keyed on this because I usually find myself wanting to get the face moved slightly ahead of everything else. If I don't get that right, then for me everything else is moot.

We all have to pick and choose from the smorgasbord of techniques, talents, and neuroses.

Michele - Thanks for the tip about modernpostcard.com - I'll look into that!

Steven - Live and learn! I'll never make the mistake of leaving the face til last again. I'm heavily into it right now, and let's just say it's at an 'ugly' phase. Will post an update when it is no longer so ugly!

She has a Face again!
 

... but I think the likeness is off. Going to take a break from it for a few hours, maybe when I come back it'll hit me what's off.

Still to do:
- neck/necklace
- tweaking hands/arms
- tweaking face
- cleaning up background

Any thoughts appreciated (especially if you spot what's off on her face!

Thanks!

and the closeup.

What jumps out at me is the blotchiness in her neck but especially on her hands and arms. All those purple cools that are unevenly blended look very harsh and unnatural to me.

Terri,

Take a look at Hannah's nose, I think her left nostril is a bit too low. You may also want to soften the edge and contrast around her ear.

Michele - Thanks! I've learned that I can only paint flesh tones in daylight - or else I get some very weird colors! Will adjust color and blending in her arms in the morning.

Mike - Thanks will check the nostril again, see if I can push that up a bit. I've been debating about her ear, I think it's actually ~1/8 inch too far right (it doesn't line up with her jaw line to me), so I've been considering whether I need to move the whole thing over? In any case, will make sure that whatever ear she winds up with is less edgy!

Terri,

I think the value needs to be darkened around her eyes. To me at a quick glance they do not look like the sockets go in enough. And her eyebrow on our left seems to look like it needs to extend down more towards her nose, maybe.

Looking great so far.

Another nitpick, is the contour of her lashline on her left eye correct? It seems subtly different.

Bigger, are you in the process of matching the arms to the face in color and brush style, or will they remain different?

Some things about this are wonderful. The texture on the chair, the composition. The modeling of the shirt is really realistic, and I like the colors, which seem to soften the t-shirt notion to me (I'm an anti-tshirt person too). Also the likeness and skintones really are great - we nitpick around here to be helpful, not to be overly critical.

Not to push this point too far, but one thing that jumps out at me is that the girl doesn't seem to really be attached to the other things in the picture. Because the edges are so defined in acrylics, she doesn't seem to be integrated with her setting. The blending you're getting in the face is really good, but when it's coming up on previously painted areas the distinctions seem very harsh. Do you continue to soften those as you work along?

I really don't want to harp on this. I saw your other paintings and you're obviously a fine painter who's mastered a tricky medium. I'm really enjoying watching Hannah come along.

Getting Closer. . .
 

First let me thank you all for your input! It really helps to have all these extra (and fresh!) eyes looking at it! I think I've incorporated most all of your suggestions so far - with the exception of Lisa's comments which I am only just now seeing. I broke one of my cardinal rules and messed with the skin tone on her arms without benefit of daylight... so I expect I'll have to tone that color down a bit tomorrow.

Kim - Thanks, I've adjusted both the shadows and the eyebrow. I think it helped.

Lisa - You're right, I do need to adjust her lower lash line on her left eye, it's a little bowed out, isn't it? And yes, I am continuing to push the arms towards a finish/color like the face. Really need daylight to finish them up (hopefully tomorrow). I need to rework the background a bit to smooth in the patches where I corrected some shapes, I'll look at some of her 'outside' edges at that point to see if they need adjusting (Edge quality is something that I really have to work at!).

Not sure I like the overall background color too well, it's a bit too green for me - but the client didn't want me to change it. I think a more toned down green would be a little softer with her. Should I push her on this?

Thanks again! I can't tell you how much I appreciate all of your input!
:sunnysmil

(Note: I replaced the earlier 'red' photo with one taken in daylight.)

And the close-up.
(She's finally got her necklace on!)

Done?
 

I've adjusted the background, the hand resting on the arm and softened her left lash line and am thinking this is just about done. Will be showing it to the client later today for any feedback/tweaking before varnishing.

Thanks everyone for all of your thoughtful critiquing!

face detail...

Ideas
 

Terri, I have a few thoughts. Firstly, I see two or three times where you are very close. I always think of how hard this medium is to handle as far as open time and blending is concerned. I feel that were you using oils you could get softer edges and you'd surely have lots of time to blend.

One last thought, I think you might take care with your lens choice. I see the near hand looks a bit large and the far hand looks a bit small. This is all about the lens. Try a 50-65 mm next time maybe.

Having said all that I do like the work.

Timothy - Thanks so much for your feedback!

I've left a gap in my schedule between Thanksgiving and Christmas that I'm thinking I could use to try my hand at oils.

As far as the camera goes, I didn't realize it was distorting my references so much! I just checked out the 'Canon Digital Elph' I've been using and the lens looks like it is 5.4-10.8mm. Ouch! :o Looks like I'll need a better camera sometime soon. (When I can afford it -- I'm really just getting started and trying to spread out the up-front expenses to be at least breaking even!)

Thanks again!
Terri