Jean,

I

Steven
 

Hi, again I've printed out your comments and will post the results when I'm done. I knew I could count on you to help me create the perfection that I'm looking for.

One question, is this an example of a well done piece of art or is it more on the line of a greeting card illustration? No offense is meant to any of the illustrators on the forum. I hope you understand what I mean. I loved doing this work, and wish all my projects had this much personal involvement. Please be honest.

Thank you for your time,
Jean

Oops, I referred to Mom's eyelid on our right. It's her right, but on our left. Sorry for the confusion.

Okay
 

I got it now.

Jean

It's a nicely executed pastel that may or may not work on a greeting card. (I used to freelance text for lines of alternative greeting cards, and it's not easy trying to guess what will have broad, much less targeted, appeal by the time it hits the market.)

All things considered, were you not constrained here by the reference photo, I think some changes in composition would be effective, but really, you've done some excellent drawing in difficult perspective and handled the pastels very well.

Have I weaseled out of that one yet?

No, not yet
 

What changes in composition would you suggest. I won't be changing the composition on this one, but for future reference. This was also a picture that I just happened to get. Alice isn't really very motherly, so this pic was unexpected.

I wasnt hoping to sell this as a greeting card illustration, but somehow it looks like that to me. I wanted to do something that showed "love". Does this make any sense?

Jean

Wow, feet to the fire. You're a serious student, and I feel terribly unworthy to counsel you. You realize, of course, that I'm not a real doctor, I only play one on TV. (I don't even have a Master's! -- Dr. Science and I just hang out. I wish.)

Let me say merely that upon first viewing the initial post, my 'composition" thoughts were that the mother's and baby's postures -- spines, if you will -- were parallel, both riding hard across the same angles of the piece. Even with the relief of the mother's hand, it wasn't much relief. Mom's head to baby's head to Mom's hand is only at a slightly different angle of the same line, running hard out of the picture. It's like streaks of shooting stars through the night sky.

Mom's hair drops straight down our left side, almost a hard frame -- but that's not what you want. (Some of the variation that you obviously searched for in the hair-to-cheek contact might have been sought in the left (ours) of the hair mass.)

All I can say is that some kind of circular or roundabout visual track would serve you well. It's hard to say how the constellations might have been better arranged to suit the zodiac. But I think a turn, with more of Mom and less of child, might have been a place to start.

If I were a computer whiz, I'd 3D turn this to focus on Mom's expression and less on the baby's full-on expression. Let's face it -- except to dads, grandmas, other interested parties -- babies kind of look alike, from any angle. I think that this is a portrait of Mom, with infant. (Yes, okay, maybe a Madonna and Child, as long as we're not talking about THAT Madonna and THAT child.) I'd give the infant less importance, artistically.

But I only practice medicine on TV, and art-talk here. Did I say that? (All pros reading who would like to consult, now is the time.)

P.S. I knew about your greeting card reference. I was goofing.

Is your shingle still out?
 

Just teasing, Steven. I agree about the hair, and the circular composition. I'll see if I can pose her next time, she'd be an interesting subject alone too, her face is very dramatic.

I was hoping that her hand and lower arm wrapping up on the lower right would break that strong diagonal.

I have to disagree on one thing though. All babies are not created equal! I've seen some pretty strange looking infants. My oldest son was nicknamed Kojack and cue-ball until he was over a year old. Now he has hair almost down to his waist that I would kill for. I have to paint him.

Jean

Perhaps a new thread here . . . I don't know if we can get away with "Baby Pictures". Maybe "Future Portrait Subjects".

I know what you mean -- even at two weeks, my kids were beyond being mistaken for anyone else. Cherubic as they were (little wings and everything), I'm not sure a portrait in oil or pastel would have offered much more information than the 6,723 photographs I took of each.

And of course, now I'll never know.