Replies
 

Thank you Alicia and Mike!

- Riding crops are currently leaning in from viewer's right to direct the eye toward the subject. When I try placing them on the other side, they block the flow to the background. I thought he could be holding one, you know, in between his legs and closer to his body. I currently have him holding Gatorade, which, I believe, adds to the "after-the-game" feeling.

- Mike, you are so funny! Your suggestion to crop tighter on right has met with approval from everyone but you! Polo cognoscienti will know exactly what this is from his leg protectors, tight white pants, and helmet. The Greenwich crowd (of Conyers Farm) will recognize the characteristic striped tent, and the "scene" suggested within in about a nanosecond!

I'm still undecided about the cropping. The bigger version has a nice kind of wave pattern, and gives me room to tell a story. The cropped version makes the subject more important.

Oh, to be born a Libra! It is a real balancing act. Your comments help to tip the scales.
Thank you so much!

Hi Jeanine,

I agree with Mike in that the cropped version is a little too tight (it emphasizes the other man's backside a little too much :sunnysmil). You have done a great job with the sketches and I'm sure you can give the feeling of distance between the two men.

Good luck with this one and post your progress, it looks like fun!

Renee Price

Hi Jeanine,

Nice to see you back on the Forum!

I prefer the non-cropped version

Polo picture
 

Jeannine, I spent 20 years toiling as a commercial artist. Often we were provided with material that we had to make work. Some suggestions that might help.

A. Make sure you get a large blow-up of the photo. Get a separate close-up of his head to the size you want it preferably 8". For this subject and for a man 8" is as small as I would go on a head.

B. Draw him in classical and heroic proportions, 8 heads high, anything else and he will look dumpy. They are 1, the head, 2, to his armpits, 3, to his waist, 4, to his crotch 5. mid thigh, 6. bottom of kneecap, 7, mid calf, 8, to bottom of weight bearing heel.

The length of the neck is 1/3 the length of the head.

C. Enlarge the figure in relationship to the background, this will work because of the compressed space of this shot.

D. Crop the figure mid-calf. Those legs will look shriveled in a painting. Move the figure in white behind the polo guy. The dark side of the figure will be silhoetted against the played down white.

E. Keep the stuff on the bench to your left just as it is. It is a great mini polo still life. Crop a little beyond that. Crop sharply to the right of the polo figure so he is more monumental and centered.

F. Simplfy the background to just suggest polo tent, ie. soft vertical stripes. If you can re-photograph the scallops of the tent (or similar tent) do it. Make sure it is in the in the same light. Paint it horizontally across top of picture witout any dips, a graphic element. Soften and remove any other extraneous detail.Make sure the guy is the center of attention.

G. Your responsibility is to the final work and yourself as an artist. If your client wants to add things which, in your judgement don't work, be firm and decline. Remind her she hired you based on your previous work and to trust you.

H. Do not try to force this composition into a 30" x 40". It may well be 30" x 48".

I. Good Luck!

Spiral
 

Renee, Mari, and Sharon:

Thank you so much for your insightful comments!

Mari, I was amazed to see I have a near-perfect Fibonacci spiral within this composition with his his eyes in the center of interest!

I made a transparency which is roughly reproduced here.

This Fibonacci guy really gets around. I'll read a tidbit from one of my books:

"In his book 'The Elliott Wave Theory', Elliott also stresses the importance of the number series known as the Fibonacci Summation Series. Fibonacci (also known as Leonardo de Pisa) was an Italian mathematician who lived in the 13 century. Fibonacci's summation series begins with the numbers 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144... and goes on to infinity. Except for the first '1' each number in the series is the sum of the two previous numbers. Elliot was convinced that the numbers in the Fibonacci series were related to all occurances in nature."

This was taken from page 39 of my book:

Techniques of a Professional Commodity Chart Analyst, by Arthur Sklarew.

There's also some good links in the following thread regarding the Fibonacci series. http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...s=&threadid=91

On one of the links I mention in that thread, you can mouse over Mona Lisa and Leonardo's Vetruvian Man and the golden rectangles in the artwork appear. Here's the link directly to that page: http://library.thinkquest.org/27890/...=1&tqtime=1010

Jeanine,

Just a quick note about the charcoal sketch. I think you've tipped his head down and turned it quite a bit around toward his shoulder, and that is adding considerably to the "slouched" look that you're trying to avoid. Be sure that doesn't creep into your painting. (You might be reading a light on the side of his neck as the center of the chin.)

Hello,

I see that you removed the white diagonal line which is visible in photograph. My feeling is that adding the white line gives the composition more stability. Because the head is 'balancing' on his body, it's a dynamic pose, maybe including the diagonal line gives the composition more strength.

Greetings,
Peter

Food for Thought
 

Dear Steven and Peter:

Thank you for your comments! I will certainly keep them in mind when I do the color note in a few weeks time.

For now, I am digesting the bountiful food for thought I have been given!