Please critique portrait of Lillie Paige

[Alicia Kornick]

Thanks Linda,

She is a beautiful child and very much loved by her family. I think she looks like she is thinking more so than she is angry. I have to say though, that by lightening the shadow over her eye and softening the eyebrows as Jim Riley suggested, softened her face a bit and I like it better.

Her mother told me that that is how she looks most of the time. A discerning beauty. Thank you for the compliments - they are much appreciated.

[Alicia Kornick]

Marvin,

Thanks for the suggestion. One of the problems I had with this outdoor photo is that light seemed to be coming from both the right and the left and in the photo, her face is slightly darker on the viewer's right side.

Light bounces everywhere in an outdoor photo. Did you get my e-mail regarding the glaze?

Thanks.

[Marvin Mattelson]

I don't think I got my point across. One picture is worth...

By emphasizing (lightening) the top planes and de-emphasizing (lowering) the reflected light values you can achieve a more structural head. Reflected lights are best achieved by using color changes and keeping the shadow values intact.

[Carrie Virusso]

Alicia,

I'm very new to this Forum, but I recently posted a portrait of a little girl whose expression is every bit as anxious the little girl in your posting. I happen to love that look and I hope you don't erase it entirely. There are so many children's portraits out there that are perfectly sweet but border on the trite and innocuous side. Your picture, however, is so personal and full of character. My only suggestion is to add a bit more rose color on her forhead just above her brows to echo more closely the color of her cheeks. I really like this portrait.

[Alicia Kornick]

Marvin,

Thanks, I get the picture! Values are hard for me to read from a photograph.

[Alicia Kornick]

Carrie,

Welcome to the Forum. I know you will gain as much from it as I do. I'm glad you like my portrait and I appreciate your comments.

[Lon Haverly]

The face looks a bit long from the eyes to the mouth. This measurement is crucial in the age of this child. The slightest elongation ages the child a few months.

I would avoid using umber on a child. It drags down the rosiness.

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Alicia, this is a lovely portrait and is very true to the reference photo. I would prefer to have seen somewhat more serenity in her face, because to the uninitiated the expression does read as angry. But since it is their child, they have a history behind that look and it's probably quite meaningful for them. Sometimes the expression I would prefer for a portrait sends a totally different message to the client than it does to me, and if I don't know the subject well I have to respect the client's judgment.

Rebecca, your suggestion about printing a transparency borders on genius. I struggled mightily with a posthumous portrait from a 1940's sepia photo reference, and could not figure out what might be off in comparing the reference with the painting. Upside down and every other way the pictures looked exactly the same, but somehow they read differently when I viewed them side by side. Possibly this was simply because I was adding depth and color to a very flat picture. I don't know. The client was thrilled with the picture, but I still wonder.

In my efforts to check my finished portrait I tried using tracing paper to compare proportions and the lines of the forehead and jaw, but it was too opaque. I was even thinking of adding a projector to my studio tools for situations like these. I had no idea that transparency paper existed. You wouldn't even have to print the exact size of the painting, since it could be held up at the proper distance; that would have been sufficient in my case to point out any errors. Thanks for the idea.

[Alicia Kornick]

Thanks, Leslie.

I did soften the forhead a bit from the photo. I would have preferred a smiling picture, but had to comply with the client's wishes. You can see the other photos in the photo critique section.

I can't wait to try the transparancy trick myself.

[Jeanine Jackson]

Adorable! They are going to love this!

I would love to see the finished painting after the eyebrow correction suggested by Jim Riley. That is an area so critical to expression, I fuss with it repeatedly in all my portraits!

I agree that it is our job as portraitists to go beyond the "snapshot" to create a classic tribute. That is where, I believe, we really must deviate at times from the information in our photo sources unless we got exactly the right stuff from the start.

Great painting!