Head Study

Holly Snyder · 11-02-2004, 12:05 PM

Hi,

This is a 12"x16" head study of an 8-year old. It's in preparation for a larger piece, where she's sitting on the ground, wearing a tutu.

Cheers,

Holly

Kimberly Dow · 11-02-2004, 01:56 PM

This is lovely! Nice rich skin tones. That is a very nice 'study'!

Ooops - critique section - the only thing that bothers me in the light triangle on her shadowed cheek -it just goes so low. I did keep looking to see if the tilt of her head is reflected in the line of the eyes, nose and mouth - it seems to be, but I still keep looking for some reason.

Holly Snyder · 11-03-2004, 10:09 AM

Hi Kim,

Thanks for the feedback. I like posting in the critique section as someone always points something out that wasn't apparent to me. I'll look at the triangle on her right cheek again, now I see that it needs to be darkened a shade, and much more of a gradual turn along the right edge and bottom. I need to darken the shirt strap that's in shadow as well. The purpose for this study was to check my palette and see how her facial structure turned out.

Thanks again,

Holly

Michele Rushworth · 11-03-2004, 10:22 AM

It's lovely, Holly, but it looks like there are some alignment problems with the features. It's our tendency to try and put features on an even horizontal/vertical axis and when the model or reference is a few degrees off from that things can get skewed.

I suspect in the reference that the eye on our left is in reality a touch lower down than you've depicted it. The axis of the head in this painting is tilted slightly to the left at the top, which should make all the features tilted consistently that way too.

Can you post the reference?

Holly Snyder · 11-03-2004, 11:42 AM

Michele and Kim - excellent eyes. The outer edge of the eye on our left does indeed need to go down, the mouth is askew and the mouth and chin need to be pushed back.

I have posted a close-up as well as the larger composition, 20" x 24", however I haven't figured out what to do with the large empty background yet. Also does the position of the arm holding her foot read awkward? Although this reference is Photoshopped, that is how she was holding it, I've only filled out the part of her arm a little above her knee and above her wrist to try and make it read better.

Regards,

Holly

Michele Rushworth · 11-03-2004, 01:26 PM

Yes I think the arm holding her foot does read very awkwardly. I like the big empty background, though. You can control the viewer's eye movement by darkening down parts of it.

Can you post some of the body and head reference photos before they were Photoshopped together?