Military Portrait

[Christina Common]

Chris,

Thank you for such an wonderful feedback! You gave me important baseline information in that feedback; more than I ever learned in any art class! You've hit on a few issues I'm concerned about and now I have a better idea how to fix them. Back to the drawing board!

Lon,

Thank you for your nice comments. You read my mind -- I felt the face was too much of a washed white. I will get more bold and use some darker colors. Black? I read to avoid black if you can, but I'm willing to do anything!

In the reference photo, I noticed that most of the shadows are a cool color with a somewhat warm refraction light. I'm guessing the light source would be cool? Do I use cool colors throughout my shadows now?

I really didn't like the background so I will probably change it to a flatter appearances using the same brown/orange color. I think this will help with the light reference problem. Is there any refereance site to learn more about copyright laws? I felt that because the suit would be ultimately be changed into a military uniform, it would not be an actual copy, but I am going to search for a "body" to pose for me and use that to make it more my own. This should help with many problems.

Thanks again Chris and Lon for your response. It's the information from people like you that make the Forum an excellent learning place!