Phoebe at four: please critique!

Ruth Monsell · 03-09-2004, 10:23 PM

I have struggled with Phoebe's portrait for over a week. I have mainly been working in pastels for the past two years, and am finding the transition back to oils hard. I welcome any and all constructive criticisms you may have. I'd like to know if the skins tones look natural in color and blending and values, what you think of the indistinct outdoor background and its colors, ETC. I appreciate and value your insights. Many thanks. The canvas is around 19x25.
Ruth Monsell

Chuck Yokota · 03-10-2004, 05:28 PM

Hi Ruth,
This is a nice picture of a sweet little girl. I think you might want to look at the line of her jaw and chin; the reference looks a bit more v-shaped. This is causing her cheeks to elongate and is affecting the likeness. The left side of her face (on our right) is in the shadow of her hair and should be darker in value. The lighting in the portrait seems to be pulling that side of her face forward out of the shadow, making it look flatter. Also,softening the outline of her face would settle it back into her hair better.

Ruth Monsell · 03-10-2004, 07:22 PM

Thanks very much for those observations, Chuck. I will work on each of those improvements tomorrow. Many thanks!

Leslie Ficcaglia · 03-10-2004, 10:53 PM

Ruth, I still think that for the age of the child the body is too large, proportionally. Little children have relatively larger heads, which helps suggest the correct age when depicted properly. Here the shoulders and arms suggest an older girl, yet the face is that of a four-year-old. Do some comparative measurements and see the difference between the width from shoulder to shoulder and the size of the arms in your reference photo versus those in your painting. If you cover the arms and shoulders with your two hands and imagine them smaller and moved closer toward the center of her torso, she looks much more like a very little girl.

You might want to try a bit more blending in those highly colored patches on her cheeks. The color is nice but needs to be integrated better with the skin tones surrounding it.

I love the hair and those eyes!