"Heading for Saint Louis"
 

This is my first square composition. Oil on canvas 12 x 12. I took this photograph of my daughter while traveling on a plane to Saint Louis to see a baseball game circa 1987.

Some may remember the photo from the photo critique section. After much good advice I decided on a compositon suggested by Karin Wells, thanks for that.

I am close to finish on this painting. I have signed it in the top right but could easily scrub for another location.

Any comments are welcome.

closer view ...

This is the original photograph ...

I am so glad you painted this portrait. I loved seeing the photo you posted prior.

I think this is done except for one small (that's what they all say!) thing...you should think about recovering the lost side of the nose on our right, between nose wing and brow. Beautiful rendering of hair.

Lovely job, Mike.

Thank you, thank you.

I see clearly that I have lost the left side of her nose. Lucky for me that can be fixed pretty easily.

It also comes to my attention that the eye on our left is not shaped as well as it could be. This will take a bit more effort.

Thanks again Chris, I would not have considered doing a square composition had it not been for your guidance in another thread.

Mike
 

I'm glad to see you did this too, her expression is priceless. I won't mention the nostril and eye cause you already saw it! Other than these fixable problems, a nice job on this one. Do you find it fun to paint your children, harder or easier than someone you don't know well? This looks like it was painted with love.

Jean

Jean,

Thanks for the nice comments.

I was talking to my mother (living in San Antonio) a couple of days ago about my new painting of her granddaughter. I credit my grandmother (my mother's mother) for giving me the belief that I can do this work. My mother has on her wall a portrait that her mother did of her a very long time ago. It is done in oil on some type of wooden board about nine inches round. She is posed not unlike my daughter above. My sisters and I will no doubt fight over this painting some day.

I don't think that I try any harder to make it right, but I do feel a pressure to leave something behind. There won't be any brothers or sisters for my daughter to fight with but maybe I can create some turmoil between my great grandbabies.

p.s. I hope to get a photo of the painting of my mother and possibly include it in some way with the above painting on my new web site. "Colleen by father, with grandmother by great grandmother."

My daughter is starting to show some interest in painting, this could go on for a long time.

Careful, Mike. My daughter just left for the U.S. after a holiday visit, and she took some of my favorite drawing instruction/theory books with her -- a sort of "good news, bad news" scenario -- after spending many hours here with a sketchbook and a new set of drawing pencils. This is the first interest in the subject that I've seen in her, and it seems to have been triggered by my working on her portrait while she was here.

Do you suppose that this is a natural instinct, that we should be (willfully or unwittingly) recruiting and training our replacements? Or just a father-daughter thing? And do I get to buy more art books to replace the ones she took?

These questions are above my pay grade. I know that I learned long ago not to try and teach my loved ones anything.

I read, or heard it said somewhere: "My father didn't tell me how to live. He lived, and let me watch."

If my daughter furthers her interest I'll do my best to get her some good instruction. Then maybe she can come back and teach me.

As for the books, buy them for your wife for Valentine's Day.

Broad Smile
 

Dear Mike:

As I scrolled down to view this, I smiled broadly to see this lovely child so tenderly rendered.

I was at an opening of Mr. Kinstler's work last evening at the Lotos Club and noted the terrific handling of eyes which may be useful here. He often blurs the contour of the iris along the lower third giving an impression of moisture.

A subtle highlight somewhere along lower lids may also add even more life to your stunning work.

I think the signature works right where it is.

Humble opinions from an admirer,
JCJ

Jeanine,

Over the last few days I have been working on her eyes along with a few other things. I took the painting this morning to my photo lab to have slides made.

One other thing I tried to do was to flatten down her right ear. The photo shows a bit of a cab door effect. This has caused a slight departure from the photo on our left. I think the result passes the plausibility test so I've decided to leave it.

There is no need for humility, and I haven't forgotten about the chianti.

Thanks for the look,
Mike

Lovely, lovely, lovely.

No tricks, no fake "cute," just wonderful real life.

Mike, the only thing I'd look at is the reflected light on her cheek on the shadow side (our right). The break of reflected light on her cheek in the reference photo is probably a little strong because her shirt is white. In your painting, the shirt is blue, so wouldn't be reflecting as much light up onto her cheek. Or in other words, maybe smooth transition a little and have less abrupt color break across that cheek, between the creamy pink and the ruddier red. Or not.

Be proud. Wish I'd painted it.

And thanks forever for the father quote.

Tom,

I see your point, I never would have considered that.

I'm tempted to say - I too wish you had painted it, but only tempted.

Unfortunately the suggestions from Jeanine and yourself will not be in my next post of this image. As I said I took it this morning to have slides made and will receive them by week's end. Maybe I was a little hasty.

Thanks to you and Jeanine and all the others for your support. And thanks to Karin Wells for help with the composition.

This is the finished image as photographed to slide, then printed from the slide on 8x10 paper (which ends up almost 8x8), then scanned at 300 dpi, and then reduced to forum size.

And now with some of your ideas incorporated.