Baby Johann
 

Hi there!

This 9x11 portrait of Johann is the first oil baby portrait I have done. So far, it's going pretty well, considering I am still learning the ins and outs of my new Finepix S7000 and the final photograph his parents and I both agreed upon has some very distinct contrasts (still learning about lighting and photography, too!) I'm happy with the way the foundation is laid out and feel that the drawing and details are strong so far. But due to the photograph, I find it necessary to fudge some of the color details and to even out the contrast just a bit. I would say I am 3/4 of the way there, meaning this is the perfect time for me to welcome any insights, digital manipulations or observations any are willing to offer. Thanks so much, in advance, for your time.

Balance contrast in Photoshop
 

Hi Julie;
I think the portrait is going well so far! I like to adjust the photo in Photoshop. I selected the highlights with the magic wand and darkened them, also added yellow for warmth (in the variations menu). Then I selected the rest of the face and lightened the shadows. Also, I feathered the selections 6 pixels before making the changes. That makes a soft transition. I hope it helps you finish this cutie. (Or should I say Kewpie Doll?)

Hi Julie,

Your reference photo is extremely contrasty, and has a large area of white out (There is no detail in the white areas even if you darken the image.) This makes it problematic to work from. In the image of your painting that you've posted, I think you've got a patch on the forehead and into the eye area that is too dark because you are following this poor reference too closely (or having a hard time adapting it). In the attached, I used the histogram function in Paint Shop Pro to swing the middle values MUCH lighter. This may help some, but still doesn't help the white out problem on the bright side of his head. (In reality I'm sure you'd see distinctions there that help define the form.)

When you work from a faulty reference like this, it makes a lot of extra work, guessing at what it really should look like... it is so worth getting a good reference in the first place!

Good luck with this--

What a difference!
 

Thanks, Alice and Terry. I guess I'll have to learn photoshop or just get better at taking photos (I'll bet there's tons of info already posted that can help me there). This helps immensely for the shadowed areas and I guess I can probably find other photos in the lot I took that will help inform me about the highlighted areas. But this already makes a huge difference -- thanks.

Julie I like what you have started and am interested in watching the progression.

And I think I need to go to school to learn Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. How do you two DO THAT???

Photoshop tips
 

I think PhotoShop is essential for portrait artists. My 30 years as a graphic artist, the last 16 on the computer, have helped to learn photo manipulation. I compose photos together, change backgrounds, resize and move elements around, manage cropping, color, value and sometimes detail issues before picking up a brush! Furthermore, I like to show the client the results of the computer layout for approval before painting. Saves revisions at the end of the project! Most of what I've learned about PhotoShop has been by just doing it, but there are one-day workshops and books by Scott Kelby (http://www.photoshopuser.com/) and I'm sure some local classes at colleges and private institutions, as well as online tutorials. I'm happy to answer questions if anyone on the forum needs help.

Microsoft Picture It!
 

I have worked as a graphic designer, too, but I never did get too proficient with Photoshop. It's a very deep program. Now I have a computer at home, and I can't afford all the high power software. I have found that even the software that came with my basic Microsoft package works pretty well. It is set up similarly to Photoshop (though sadly lacking in keyboard shortcuts and it tends to crash more frequently). So you could play with whatever photo-editing software you have and get moderately good results.

Photo editing software
 

Yes, if you are adjusting brightness and contrast in general, the simplified programs will do. I'm not familiar enough with them to give advice, but it never hurts to experiment on a copy of the file.

How's the portrait coming, Julie?

How it's coming...
 

Sorry it's taken me awhile...I actually used some pto today and took the day off of work so I could work on THIS for awhile...isn't that just silly? But I haven't had a chance to work on it since I posted last... ;C

I was able to lighten the photo in photoshop, but then I had to mess with the RGB vs. CYMK settings to get the color separation right for printing, etc. etc. It helped to have that lighter reference around.

I'm pretty happy with this so far. I think I've got about one more sit with this then I'm going to call it done, lest I the little guy. I'm not really happy yet with his right eye, so I've still got to resolve that. It helped just to turn the reference and the painting upside down and relearn how to see his face. I felt like I was getting tight and making prejudgments about what I was seeing. I got some super-soft brushes, and some Graham Walnut Alkyd so I could glaze and blend a little better. I really love the alkyd - it dries quickly, non-toxic and just makes the paint like butter. I'm really glad I read about it. Besides the eye, I think I've got some of the go back in on some of the highest highlights and the darkest shadows, but I don't think I'll paint again until I've had a chance to look at it for awhile.

Thanks for looking and thanks for all of your comments -- they really helped!

Julie

wow...
 

His irises look really funny to me all of a sudden! Guess I'll add those to my list of things to touch up! :D

Hi Julie-- I'm seeing some areas of concern in the updated images you've posted. There are some drawing issues. Though his nose looks to be proportioned correctly, his other features (eyes/mouth/ear) have gotten rather large for his head. The more areas are focused on, or reworked, they tend to grow or expand (in painting), it's something to watch out for. It can help to get away from it for awhile and so that you get a fresh look at it... or from further away to take in overall scale.

It also appears that the contrast between light/dark details may be somewhat exaggerated and is distracting from the sense of form. The bubbles on his lips, in particular, aren't reading well (too light?). Though this may be the quality of the photograph or just how it appears on my monitor rather than the painting?

It's clear you've been working hard on this, please don't get discouraged. Just wanted to give you an honest assessment. Hope it helps!

Checking for accuracy
 

Hi Julie,

I think you're really close to being finished, and it's looking good! I especially like the little mouth.

I sometimes use tracing paper to get an exact size outline of the features and hold it or tape it over the painting to check proportions. It's a helpful thing to do as long as you're reasonably sure your photo reference is not too distorted. Our human eyes see so much differently than cameras. However, a more "high tech" way to check your work is to "draw" an outline on the computer over the face, and print it out the exact size of the head in the painting, but on inkjet transparency film. That way you don't have the "cloudiness" of the tracing paper. See the example below. You can achieve the same thing with a Sharpie marker and transparency film as long as your photo head is the same size as the painting head. The only problem is trying not to overwork the painting with excess detail, unless that is your goal.

That said, I think the right eyelid needs to come down a little at the upper lash line. Do you like to add the highlight on the iris? I do. I think the eyes should have the most detail on the face. And this baby is all about the eyes - so cute!

Happy painting! :)

Terri - that would figure that the nose is pretty well proportioned; it's the thing I've touched the least! :o I'm also used to working big and this is 9"x12" and the features are a lot smaller than I'm used to painting, so maybe my brain is trying to make everything bigger. Hmph anyway.

I'm really grateful for your photoshop pictures. Wow. Now I know I've got another tool to use to keep things accurate. Of course, I wonder if the best way to keep features in proportion isn't just to get it right the first time so there's minimial reworking of the area! If that's the case, time and practice (and subsequently confidence) will certainly contribute.

Looks like I've got a bit more work to do on this than I thought...I might not want (or be able to) to totally rework the area, as per your demonstration, Terri, but at the very least I'll bring the eyes down a bit, as per Alice's feedback. At least now I know why I'm not satisfied with his eyes!

Thanks - this is exactly the stuff I need to hear about!

Oh yes, Alice -- I definitely will be adding iris highlight. It's usually the very last thing I do, though. :sunnysmil

Hi Julie--
It is nice to get the drawing right the first time... but sometimes it doesn't work out that way, and things can still turn out fine. When I'm in a hurry, tend to measure less in the flurry to get things on canvas and wind up having to go back in and correct later. (As long as ridges haven't built up!) On my recent painting of the little girl and her Dad, her eyes started way out of whack. Every go 'round kept shifting her right (our left) eye down. Probably wound up moving it the whole height of the eye by the time was finished. It happens. When I'm really careful to get the initial drawing right... sometimes it's so constraining not to mess it up in later layers that the piece can seem a little stale. But that's just how it works for me. . . depends on what mood :)

Like your new avatar!

Yes - that's what I'm afraid might have happened that would prevent me from redoing the area -- ridges. I should be able to rework a little bit though and I can cut back the 'jarring' effect of the eyes by fudging with the color, at least in theory, even if I'm unable to redo the structure at this point.

Thanks.

Oh! Um - What's an avatar?

It's a little scary to do, but often you can gently scrape back ridges with the edge of a palette knife.

Your avatar is the little picture of yourself that appears on your posts. :)

Scraping ridges
 

A tip I learned from Richard Whitney: Use a curved-blade X-acto knife to scrape down dried paint ridges for layering over.

I do believe in getting the proportions right the first time, but I think everyone has to make adjustments along the way. :oops:

Julie -

Sorry I came into this thread late, but if you are still open to some help, I'd like to share my assessments and perhaps some Photoshop manipulations to guide you further.

The advice you've recieved thus far has been spot on with regards to drawing and contrast corrections, etc. I've taken the liberty of further breaking down your latest posted image into sections in order to show where there needs to be some hue shifts and saturation changes, along with a few small things that are important to fully realizing the likeness.

But before I post these things, I'd like to ask for your permission to do so. It's pretty much for the same reason that I ask my students if I may draw/paint on their work to show them the practical application of the process - just a matter of respect for personal property, really.

So let me know - hope things are going well with this one! Scraping the work down is scary, but once you do it, it's never scary again!

Post away!
 

Thanks for doing that, Rob, and thanks for asking. I didn't need to scrape, as it turns out, and I went ahead and re-did the eyes so that they're closer to reality. I think it looks much better now and I'm very interested in hearing your take. I'm more comfortable (and better at) negotiating values but am still pretty intimidated by hues and saturation - color, generally, still freaks me out. ;)

So post away, and thanks.

I'm actually in the midst of P-shopping some other things for a Digital Illustration class I'm currently teaching. I'm so not qualified for it, but they talked me into it. Weird, huh, considering what I'd said about the MFA requirement, as posted in the Cafe. They'l let me teach something I'm not qualified for, but they won't let me teach something I am qualified for in BFA. Okay, that's off-topic :P

I designated 4 areas A, B, C and D, plus a wee arrow to show a drawing change. I did re-draw and re-position the eyes. The mouth I moved just a tad, and put it on its proper plane.

Area "A" was too warm, saturated with an orange hue. It is true there are areas of great warmth in the transitions across the "terminator" (the line that separates the dark and light planes), but this warmth was dominating the entire core shadow. I poly-lassoed it and hue shifted towards red, desaturated it quite a bit and knocked back the contrasts.

Area "B" sort of has the opposite problem. This is interesting, because in indoor light situations, the reflected lights in the head have a tendency to be cooler (or at least, more neutral, thus percieved cooler), as the main light is generally warm (especially in incandescent light). However, your main light is coming from outside! It is not cool, but what happens is that it bounces of interor objects back into the head on the shadow side and becomes quite warm in areas of saturated skin tone (ball of nose, cheek and chin, for instance). "B" was too neutral/ochre so I increased the saturation a little bit, and shifted it towards red.

There are some places in these broad areas where I had to add back or subtract away warmth because of small specific instances of these temperature changes. The cheek on the lower right side of "A" is an example of where I had de-saturated it along with the rest of "A", but there still needed to be warmth there, as the middle third of the face always has the most pigmentation (warm colors).

"C" is important to getting the jaw to separate a bit better from the sweater. His head casts a shadow here, so I darkened it (and de-saturated the blue a bit, as this is what happens in shadow).

I did the opposite to "D", as it seperates his little chubby cheek from the collar. I lightened it, thus bringing out the edge plane of the cheek rounding underneath the jaw line.

And the turquoise-colored arrow indicates a small drawing change. His head shape is more squared-off here than in your original. This helps with likeness a lot, getting more specific with the baby's particular profile (these little guys don't have the hair to hide their profiles!).

Hope this helps, Julie!

Julie,
I thought I'd add a little something that may be helpful in the future. At school we do charcoal value drawings before we're allowed to paint our pictures. We use acetate to tranfer the drawings to the canvas. I always hang onto the acetate, and then if I mess up, I can lay the acetate back over the canvas to check my drawing. Of course, that's assuming the drawing is correct in the first place. I think taking the time to get the drawing correct saves a lot of hassle in the painting process. Plus you have the advantage of having your values figured out ahead of time.
Debra

Thank you Rob. This is so cool - it helps a lot. I'm not going to be able to actually apply any of this until this weekend but I will definitely be posting my results from it. Can't wait. But in the meantime I wanted to say thank you!

Julie

Woo hoo!
 

Finally done! Rob et al, I want to thank you for your help on this. I've given it over to his parents and they love it! Whew!

I'll be posting pictures later tonight.

Thanks again!

Here is the completed painting
 

Okay, here's the final piece. As per my usual underwhelming photographing and photoshop skills, the colors look a bit darkish and overbearing. His parents loved it and are very happy. (whew...deep breath.)

Thanks again for all advice, feedback, etc. I can't tell you how much it all helped.

All right, Julie!!!
 

Great job, Julie! I'm so glad everything worked out on this one in the end... especially the part about happy clients!

Thanks for allowing me to be a second set of eyes on this one. We all need that at some time or another.

After this piece, the next one will be even easier! Well, sometimes that's true. I mean, lightning can strike twice. I remember learning that the last time I visited NCAR. ;)

Um. I work at NCAR. Did I mention that on this site? Or is that just a coincidence?

Thanks for the help!

It says so on your website, Julie.

I'm kind of a weather geek (note the clouds behind me in my avatar - that's one of a dozen cloud paintings of mine), so I thought it was totally cool that you worked there. Hope you don't mind that I mentioned it!

I illustrated a weather book for kids a while back. It's called "Can It Rain Cats And Dogs" by Melvin and Gilda Berger, published by Scholastic. Not my best work, but it was fun. I'm a much better cloud painter now. I took Meteorology 101 and 102 as my science requirement for my BFA, and it's been very helpful to have that knowledge.

Talk to you soon!