Background or not?
 

This pastel is 24" x 18", on Mi Tientes, Moonstone colored paper. When I started I was not going to use a background, now I am questioning if it needs one or not. Any thoughts? I was trying to keep the colors too red, orange (flesh) and violet.

Here's the detail...
 

Close up - I forgot, I did have to use green in the eyes.

This is my photo reference. I notice the colors on the pastels look a tad washed out, they are richer.

Once again it's the forehead that bothers me. It's not quite high enough. There is a little bit of a ridge between the skin, and her hair, that you have left out, little bit of a bump at the very top of her face that you have smoothed over too much. It makes her look less intelligent. It's her frontal lobe that you have minimized. She needs that. :) Also the top of her head (her hair) needs to be just a bit higher I think. If you have measured, and found the face to be correct, then perhaps her eyes are a little too high on her face. That would make the forehead a little too small. I looked again and I think that the forehead just needs to be a little more square rather than egg shaped.

Does anyone else see this, or is it my imagination?

Color has never been my strong point. I have worked on that color paper. The one horizontal Baby Jesus drawing on my web page is on that paper. I now work on gray paper because I had trouble with it. Your portrait here looks a little cold to me. I would try a little Daveys Gray (W&N) in the shadows, and a little pale Raw Sienna in the light parts of the skin to warm it up. Just try a little bit and see if it works at all. Another good color might be a very pale burnt umber (W&N) rather that that purplish red that I see. A little bit of that is ok, but it's quite cold and strong.

These are just suggestions. If It doesn't work, don't do it.

About the background, I think that you might be able to use the window to balance this composition. It becomes part of the composition in the photo. Do a small sketch, about 4x5, with a pencil, and see how it works, before you make your decision.

It will look better also when you crop the paper that is above her head. That empty space above her head is very distracting. If I am not going to use all of my paper, I always draw a line around the space that I will be using. Your negative space is as important as the space that you fill.

Thanks Linda, you are right I should have drawn the boundaries instead of just keeping them in my head.

I will go measure the forehead, perhaps it's my shading, because I thought I was careful to get it right, but I might have brought the "whispies" down to far.

Here I get back to the discussion I was having with Mai, the temperature color rule gets me. If this girl is bathed in cool light thus should have warm shadows (I cheated with the violet above her eyes for color scheme purposes), if I add warmer color to her "local" color, does that screw everything up? Or did I see it wrong all together. Sometimes I try so hard to focus on the technical aspects I am trying to learn I worry I am forsaking any creativity. Did the Masters see all this stuff and teach it to their students, or did we evolve to this science of color through more modern ways? I know it makes sense, cause I see how complete portraits are that apply these rules, perhaps I should look at some that don't...any suggestions?

Linda - I am such a

Hi Beth,

I agree with Linda that the painting gives an overall a cold feeling. Her forehead is looking flat, lacking of form. You need to look at the shading of the forehead again I think.

Colour:

The subject's face: I think you need to put some raw sienna in her skin to warm it up, and some warmer brown in her shadow parts. The violet between her eyes is too cold. I would layer it slightly with a warmer pink/red to tone down the violet. The shadows on her chin, side of her face and forehead need some warm colours. The side that is facing the light source needs some raw sienna in it. Although the dominant colour is cool, it needs to be balanced with some warmer colour.

The subject's clothing: I would put some of the colours you used on the hair and face on her clothing. Use it little and sublty so that you don't actually alter the colour of the clothes but just enough to unify the colours of the painting.

Composition:

I also agree with Linda that there is too much of a negative space on the girl's right side. It is the way that she extends her right knee. Right now, she also looks as if she is floating, not sitting. You need to put the window in to balance the painting. You can still keep the focus on the painting at the 'spot' that you referred to, and still have the window or something on her right hand side. Just don't use sharp edges, or colours that bring attention to that part of the painting.

I hope my suggestions help and have not confused you again. I think I did not a good job explaining the colour theory that in my previous posts, and can see still that you are confused with what I said.

Mai

Dear Beth,

This is the strongest work I have seen of yours so far! You have done an excellent job on the likeness, and I like the color harmony a great deal.

As to your question at hand, I can only say that every time I have left the background until the end, I have regretted it, because it is very difficult (not impossible, just difficult) to make anything work that is different in either value or temperature work, since you have placed every other stroke in comparison to the background. If this were my painting, I would probably leave the background as is, and integrate the edges of the figure a little more with the background by losing some edges, and softening others...the hair would be a very good place to do this.

I would also look at "disappearing" some of the edges and contrast below the waist. The composition cuts off the hands and leg in an abrupt way, so I would minimize the dark values in the pants, and mat carefully to avoid the tangent where the leg on our left touches the arm on our left.

Only a tiny amount of her face is actually in the light. It looks lilac there are shadows on the face, cast by the hair, with fairly crisp edges near the casting strands. This would be a fun place to really work with shadow edges, because in places like this they can really define form.

Linda is right on the forehead. One of the best discussions on children's facial proportion is in Roberta Carter Clark's "Painting Vibrant Children's Portraits." If you haven't seen this book, you would probably really enjoy it.

With regard to color temperature, since your light source is cool, make the shadows relatively warmer. They don't need to be hot, only just warm enough that they are differentiated from the color in light. In your photo, the shirt folds in shadow look really blue. I learned from my photographer friend that the reason they appear this way is because the film is sensitive to UV light that our eyes cannot see and the bleach used to make fabric white shows up in the UV range. (That's why they used to call bleach "bluing.") So I think the shirt would read more true to the eye if you let the turning edges stay cool, and very (VERY) slightly warmed the deep folds.

Very nice job.

This is another way of solving the background problem. I just cropped the photo for good composition. You couldn't do this in 18x24 because her face would be too big. But a smaller size would work well.

Hi, Beth!

Independently of the other critiques, I noticed that the girl's right cheek (the one closest to the window) appears to extend as far out or slightly beyond the nose. To get the nose to protrude farther, I'd lighten the value of the right side of the nose (facing the window), since it is more illuminated in the reference than it is in the drawing, and I would also lighten the highlights on the bulb of the nose as well as on the right wing of the nose. The edge of the highlight on the bulb of the nose should be very crisp. I hope that helps!

Thanks for all your input everyone. I just returned from a lovely retreat and am anxious to get to work on your suggestions.

Linda, thanks for the crop photo. It is what I shot the picture for, just to do head and shoulder, but I loved her casual pose with her leg and thought it could be an interesting compostion too - I think it gives her image a "carefreeness". I saw the post about thinking "a head", and I am sure you would be surpised to know that I actually planned this out, but think it might be stronger with the background. I know it is a rotten way to look at it, but I thought if it didn't work I'd just trim it down anyways.

Off to investigate/apply suggestions. Thanks again!

Feeling of light
 

Beth, you have already received so many helpful comments, I hesitate to add anything else. What I first noticed about this piece was that it lacked a feeling of light. To me one of the outstanding aspects of pastel is its ability to capture light.

The right side should be darker so the facial elements (i.e., eyes) become part of the form, and so the light on her cheek becomes more effective. The features have a tendency to look as they were all concentrated on and drawn separately.

Step back more often from your work so that you are more aware of the form instead of the details.

Quick adaptation of "the Boston School" method. Get photo to size of the artwork. Place reference side by side with work. Stand up when you are working and far enough back so the form is more important than the details. You can quickly see the disparities this way. I work 15'+ away, 5'-6' is good for a small head. Use a mirror for corrections.

Oh Sharon, that is a great point.

I am so used to working on my computer blowing it up to 500%. I find myself taking my reference photos and putting them under my 6X loop for the details.

Hopefully I can post the changes Monday, and you guys will LOVE - okay, like - them. ;)

Another el tippo
 

Beth, I think you have gotten a great 101 in pastel here, one more thought. Pastel is messy and, on paper sometimes unforgiving, so I do quick color studies before I proceed. I rough them out quickly on the same color background I wish to use. I then work on them until the have a feeling of light and a good basic color harmony. I then take lines to various areas of the study and mark the color used. They are quite unlike the beautiful old master studies I have seen before, but they are a great help.

Sometime when I am stuck for value or color, I take a scrap of pastel paper and with a smudge of color on it, hold it up to my figure, photo, whatever, to check it out.

Taking all the wisdom above, I have brought this piece to more of a finish. Dealing with the background I tried to fade the edges of the hair as suggested by Chris, into the paper. I didn't think this was enough so in keeping with my color scheme, and if you look closely at a sheet of the Moonstone color of paper - I tried to pull the colors out and fade them in an unintrusive way. Here is the main image:

One more time...

Here is the detail:

Linda, here is the crop you suggested, which is, as I explained above, what I shot it for in the first place:

Lovely job!
 

Beth, it is really very lovely. You are making great steps. She really is adorable.

Here's the howevers. Tiny ones. The left side of her hair, towards the top could be rounded out a bit.

Squint at the reference and check your values. The light on the left side of the chin is as bright as the right. Also check the values on her forehead in relation to the light on her cheek, nose and extreme right forehead.

All and all a very good job! You should be proud! Go do another one!

Sincerely,

Yes, nice job Beth.

Sharon's right about doing a practice color work up, before the real thing, on the same colored paper. That is where I make my errors. I am forever changing my mind about what colors to use. I end up erasing huge sections, and it affects the texture of the paper. A coat of workable fixative will bring back some of the tooth of the paper, but doing it right the first time would certainly look better. :thumbsup:

The painting looks really beautiful Beth! And same with your daughter. :)

Mai

Thanks everyone, I'll check those slight changes.

Mai this isn't my daughter - mine used to be this cute! ;)