Beautiful Dutch girl, no earring

Linda Brandon · 10-16-2005, 11:44 AM

Hi Janet,

I really llike what you've been doing here and I love the way you're handling the paint and cooling the light side. Just a couple of things... does she have colored contact lenses or is that really her eye color? Either way, I feel the blue is a little startling and I would try to try to tone it down as much as possible without losing her character. Try to get some soft edges around the eye if you can. About her nostrils: is that raw umber? Try for a warm color for body openings, nostrils, corners of mouths, ears, etc.

Also, I often leave out neck folds altogether and it still looks very natural in a painting, especially in women. Go take a look at some Sargents and see what I mean. Photography accentuates line where in real life form meets form and value meets value in a much more subtle manner. The eye can be drawn to hard lines in paintings anyway and you want to manage the viewer's attention. Here, your lines come off as stripes in a Nearly Headless Nick effect. Remember that you are the aesthetic boss of your painting, not the photo!

You've really caught her character here, nice job. And really nice hair, too, soft and convincing colors.

Kimberly Dow · 10-16-2005, 11:59 AM

Janet,

The skin tones are much more life-like this time around!

I agree with Linda about the neck lines. I would also take a bit of the darkest color of the hair and blend in at the forhead more to soften that edge right at her part. I think the hair looks lovely, but blondes especially seem to have a lot of cools in their hair (grays and blues)...just something to consider.

Edit - Im going to take that back about the cools in the hair since now that I look again you do have them. It may be the darkest area that Im drawn to - wanting to see it as cooler.

Janet Kimantas · 10-16-2005, 03:44 PM

Well, ladies, the changes here are by and large pretty subtle. If you can't see them, I guess they are too subtle. Hairline at centre part: done. More cool in the dark part of the hair: done. Neck stripes: gone. Eye edges softened a little: done. Thanks you guys for taking the time to pick on the little things that make so much difference.

As for the colour of her eyes, they are quite startling in real life; depending on the light I have never been able to decide whether they look like glacial meltwater or tropical lagoons. Hopefully softening them up has made them jump out less. And the neck creases - I looked up Sargent on this and no, I don't imagine he ever allowed a crease to sully those languid, elegant subjects of his. Since you both mentioned it, is it because paying lady customers don't like to see them? Included are some of the prettiest neck creases I have ever seen, just to stir it up a little.

Michele Rushworth · 10-16-2005, 09:33 PM

Nicely done. All the studing and changes you've been doing have made a lot of difference.

Good idea to do the Bougereau copy in order to work on your skintones too. I was intently studying an exquisite Bougereau at a museum today and really noticed how cool the skintones were.

Alexandra Tyng · 10-17-2005, 09:53 AM

Hi Janet,

I just came upon this thread, which has obviously been going on for some time. I am so impressed with your persistence and the improvements you have made. You've gotten such excellent advice from the experts, too!

I think the way you approached this (and your other work), challenging yourself to draw from what you see, couldn't be more helpful for you in the long run. If you run into trouble, those photoshop techniques are invaluable for pinpointing where you have gone wrong. I think that elusive likeness problem has happened to most artists at different times. I use the wierd and probably goofy looking method of smiling at my paintings and seeing if they smile back. If it's not quite them, i.e., if the nostril is a bit snarly and the mouth a bit droopy, I try to be really honest with myself and not gloss it over. Then I try to figure out what has caused the problem, by looking back and forth between the person or reference, and the painted image. It's usually the problem that was mentioned: the tendency to straighten out everything.

Every time you paint this fascinating girl your painting improves by leaps and bounds. It's exciting to see.

Alex

Janet Kimantas · 10-17-2005, 08:45 PM

Michele, thank you so much for nitpicking away at the little things, because you have demonstrated to me how I have to be with myself. It's a constant process of questioning and requestioning and never accepting "good enough". Oh, and the AGO has a [I]gorgeous[I] Bouguereau that I spent a long time studying a couple of weeks ago. I wonder if our painting teachers at OCA knew about what was essentially in the backyard...if they did, they kept it a big secret from me. (Note: it seems Michele and I went to school together about 100 years ago.)

Alex, thank you too for your excellent advice and support. (Good grief, I feel like I'm on the podium accepting the Big Award. Please excuse.) I'm seeing that maybe one of the great things about this forum is the "peer group". Mostly friends don't understand and family are a bit tired of it, so it's nice to get to hang with people who find the same things to be important.

Cheers, guys. Janet

Patricia Joyce · 10-18-2005, 09:36 AM

Janet,
This is coming out so beautifully, it has been fun to see what you have learned and then applied. The only thing I could add, since I too, am learning, is that actually using Indian Red in a dark value in the nostrils and the deep creases of the eyelid look very "authentic". I believe that is what Bouguereau used, it is a deep, warm red.