Unsure of next move. Help!
 

This is probably the largest portrait that I've ever painted (18x24) and I've gotten myself stuck. The question is whether to bring it all to the same degree of finish as the face, or to do a better job of vignetting it. And then there's the background... I would love some fresh eyes on it all.

Also I'm wondering if this painting has crossed the line from portrait to figurative, and where exactly is that line anyway?

Thanks a lot, Janet

Janet, this is beautiful! I love the pose, and of your painting style is delightful.
I've compared some of the shapes in Photoshop and am posting the spots that seem to not match up. I adjusted the sizes of the two images by matching up the lips because I think those are pretty much right on. There are just those three areas that seem to be off a bit.
Very lovely work! If this is the first adjustment on this portrait that you are doing, then your eye is really getting good!

Brenda,

You are so generous in your critiques, not just in the really nice things you say, but in the trouble you go to with the specifics. I certainly appreciate it. I see what you mean about the browbone on the far side and the bridge of the nose. However, the thought of re-painting that eye makes me want to take up an easier pursuit like quantum physics. Or string theory.

Any thoughts on the background and degree of finish? Love to hear them!

Thanks, Janet

Janet,

If I were you, I'd start on that eye just by fixing (lowering and flattening) the upper lid and adjusting the iris. Then if it is still off, I'd do the lower lid.

I like the background you're developing. I like the softness of it. I'm still learning about backgrounds myself, though!

Janet,

I like the the painting and the background a lot. Here are some additional suggestions for tweaking it:

1) Lighten the highlights in her hair to increase value range and modeling and give the painting some pop. The reference photo indicates these should be the lightest part of your painting.

2) The pouching under her right eye is too accentuated. Soften the value range here to de-emphasize. Unless she had a bad night on the town, she is too young to have that problem in her face.

3) Bring the gray in the sky down to her right shoulder to allow the highlight there to work and to pull her into the foreground.

i like the improvements in your painting skills that are showing up here. Keep up the good work.

Youve got a lovely start here.

I know Im not answering your asked questions, but...

her overall skin is warm and brown/tan. You need to search out and find some cools for her skin to be more believeable. The photo you have posted shows her skin as much cooler than you have it painted, but it could be my screen. Even if it didn't - some cools in there would add an awful lot to this painting.

I'm not sure where the line is between figurative and portrait, either, Janet.

I think this is a portrait simply because the painting is so clearly "about" this woman. Her personality, what she might be thinking, her mood.

I am remembering a painting of Charles Dickens by R.W. Buss, titled "Dickens' Dream". It is certainly a portrait but the figure of Dickens is relatively small and asleep. The rest of the painting (unfinished) is an entire wall of character depictions from Dickens' stories.

I don't know what they teach folks in art school about the difference between the two. Manet's painting of the woman behind the bar, in which reflected in the mirror is a whole room full of people. Portrait or figurative? Maybe it is for the artist to say whether his/her work is a portrait or not.

Thanks guys!

I know what my next few moves are, at any rate. Kimberly, you are right about the cools in the skin, it is something that is a real challenge for me. Since the ambient light is from a big blue sky, that's where I think I will concentrate. Richard, thanks for noticing any improvement I might have made - it's all due to this forum, I'm sure. Brenda, I'm going to call this a portrait, then. Glad that's solved.

Janet

Here she is again. I've tried to incorporate all the suggestions the best I could. The question now is, should I call this painting Hope or Faith?

Thanks in advance for looking in.

Janet

Janet,
This has come together nicely. Lovely! My vote is for Faith.

Hi Janet,

I like the fresh painterly quality you bring to your work. Nice painting!

Here's an idea that might help you with facial proportions when you work from photos: blow up your photo (a Xeroxed black and white is fine for this purpose) to the same size as your painting. Take a clear plastic sheet and draw over the face with a black Sharpie. Use this as a template to place over your painting before every painting session. It will keep you from falling in love with an eye that is a quarter inch off which you will be loathe to move. (Tip on moving eyes: scrape the canvas down so there are absolutely no ridges before you rework it.)

The template is a pretty primitive tool but personally I am too lazy to really learn Photoshop and do photo comparisons that way. I also think this way is faster.

By far the best way to train yourself to draw something exactly is to let your eye flip back and forth from the subject to your painting. Where there is vibration is where you've made a mistake. The Sharpie template is a crutch but it will help you from going too far in a wrong direction. It also won't help you in finding values, color or volume but it will help you with placement of features. When you work from a photo your facial measurements must be exactly right or the likeness will be off.

Most artists who work primarily from photos go to a huge amount of trouble to get everything exactly the same as the photo so if you are going the photorealism route you'll have to do this process of constant remeasurement, one way or another, not only at the start of your painting but at every painting session.

Janet,

I vote for "Faith" too. It looks great! I love your painterly style.
(Thanks for the compliment on that other thread! )

This forum is such a great thing. It is so nice to know others who are learning and developing along side of me. And we have such great teachers! :D

So Faith it is. I know what she was thinking about when I snapped the shot, and she's gonna need all the faith she can muster (moving out of town to go to University. With my son. I don't know if I'd do it!).

Thanks for your support, all. I do wonder, Linda, about the whole "photorealism" aspect. I'm not sure that that's even what I'm after. Certainly realism, but isn't that different from photorealism? I'm probably just revealing my ignorance here, but I thought they were two different approaches. Anyway, thanks again. That's the last painting of Sam for a while, I don't want to start appearing peculiar.

Janet

I should rewrite that paragraph in my last post; I don't think you're a "photorealist", you're more like a painterly romantic realist who works from photos, at least in this painting. (Or something like that.) I think a lot of the realism styles overlap, depending on the artist.

I think it takes years and years of practise to catch one's own drawing mistakes. You can see this when you attend a workshop: the person next to you is way off, and why can't he spot that? Meanwhile that person is looking over at your own painting and thnking the same thing about you. ;) (By the way, I know some painters who get "close enough" but never actually nail a likeness, and they get away with it.) Also, you can be off, and know you're off, but not know exactly where you're off. Another set of eyes really helps sometimes. The template can be a simple checking device when you don't have anybody else to ask at the moment.

If you're not trying for an exact likeness I suppose there is more wiggle room, but it takes very little error to distort facial features.

Your painting is beautiful however it's labelled.

Sorry for rambling. I'm working on a painting right now and it took me three days to figure out I had the nose septum too narrow.

Brenda, I really lke that Dickens painting! Thanks for posting.

Linda, go ahead and ramble. I wouldn't interupt you for the world. Thanks for all the time and thought you put into your comments. This portraiture thing sure is tricky. Although I suppose I could just not post my reference from now on! :o Seriously, though, thanks. Hey, how did your myriad cousins up here in Ariss fare during the tornado that touched down? The photos I saw were quite amazing.

Janet