And the best part of what Karin is suggesting is that the subject, the mayor, gets her mind's eye self-image, but you get to do everything right in terms of flattering your subject, composing the painting, and creating something so much more than a painted snapshot.

All right, all right. You win. I went back in snow and sleet and took some natural light photos of her in her kitchen this morning, and I'll piece the references together. She and I still like the expression on the first face best, but now I have enough information to soften the shadows and open her eyes a bit. Here's one of the ones I took today:

And here's a much better scan of the face we like; maybe you can now see why. Anyway, thanks again for all of your time and help; I think it will be a much better painting now.

Close but no cigar. Would you be willing to try it again?

1. You really need a smile with her mouth closed.

2. If you wish to paint her "full face," you need to turn her shoulders at a 45 degree angle and have her gently twist at the neck to look at the camera. This will slenderize her body and the painting will look less like a passport photo.

3. Be sure that the light does not cut the face in half.

4. If you have her sit and lean (almost uncomfortably) forward and raise her chin, you will be able to get rid of the double chins and get some catchlights in her eyes.

Oftentimes I find it much easier to actually paint a portrait than to take the initial pictures for a good photographic reference. If you wish to make a career of portraiture, it is necessary to master some photography basics...and now when you have an important commission is as good a time as any to begin.

Karin, thanks for looking. She doesn't smile with her mouth closed, though; at least, when she does it doesn't look natural. I worked on the painting for awhile today and slenderized her torso somewhat; I'm also putting lots of shadows and other shades into the shirt so that it's not solid red. And I'm softening the shadows in her face so that they're not as stark. Frankly, I really like the way it looks so far. I'll post it when I'm done. It may never be the sort of painting you or Chris or Mari or Mike would do but it's very much in the style I've carved out for myself. And I do appreciate the tips; I'll definitely keep them in mind for my next photo sessions. Thanks again to everyone.

Leslie,

Since I am the bad girl of photo reference. ;)

I played with this quickly in PhotoShop, but I see you have started it, so it may be late in coming.

I really agreed with Chris on the shirt color, you are stuck with what you have, but I played with that.

It's frustrating when you can't get it right, I know!

This is rough, but just an idea. You would really have to watch all that reflective color.

For future photo sessions, if you really love that outdoor strong light look, check out the paintings of Hongmin Zou (on this site). He poses his subjects with the direct sunlight coming over their shoulder and none of the light falls on their faces.

Doing that would give you an opportunity to show subtly modelled features and no extremes of contrast but still gives you a lovely outdoor portrait.

An exposure tip: I would imagine he bounces light back into the faces with a reflector placed behind his camera as he shoots. That seems especially likely on the one shown below, with the woman in purple.

Here is an example of one of Hongmin Zou's portraits:

And another one:

You can also get this effect by using the "spot metering" option on your camera. Instead of allowing the camera to expose the entire scene (which usually means exposing for the background and putting the subject in relative darkness) it will expose for the center of the frame (subjects face) and cause the over exposure in the background. Can be a nice affect as shown above.