Glass of lemonade
 

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Olena hallo,

It seems to me that you have a wonderful portrait here. I am sure that others will agree. In my humble opinion You have a wonderful play of hues, soft and well placed. One thing I would suggest for the future and that is remember the fall of light. The closer to the light the brighter as we move away so the light diminishes.

One more thing the girl in your portrait has a nice smile but the teeth in my opinion are a bit brighter than need be which gives the indication that they are in front of the lips rather than inside the mouth.

Grate work, keep it up.

mischa

Greetings,
This is lovely,painterly and a very pleasing composition. i like the looseness of the color and the interplay of hues. I agree with Misha on the teeth, but it won't take too much to finish this up. Don't overwork this piece. It is singing quite well as is.

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Olena,
You have a very charming scene here and I wish you luck with the completion of it.

I think that the trick is to separate the light from the shadows.

The girl is sitting on a porch, and partly in the shadow, so the light values on her shaded dress and skin will be darker than it appears on the painting.

I have manipulated your photo to make more simple masses of light and shade. Mostly concentrating on darkening the objects that are in the shadow.

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Thank you so much for all your advice. I have the day off tomorrow and will try to play with it more...
Definitely will tone down the smile and will try to tone down her blouse as well.The light colors have a bit more definition in the actual painting than on the photograph, but I definitely can see your point. I think this is what was bothering me so much. As I mention before I did try to change the source of light and didn

A great start with a difficult job.

Boy you are brave , attempting back lighting and foreshortening in one picture. The foreshortened part works well, your line of vision is high enough so you can see a good bit of her lap, so her legs do not look as they are coming out of her waist. The pose reads really well. I am working on a foreshortened pose and is has taken a year to work out all the wrinkles, so I know from personal experience JUST how difficult they are! Congratulations.

Allan had a good point about darkening the figure against the light. One thing I would do is to soften the lines especially in her face. The line from her cheek to her nose is too strong. I think you should soften the values on her nose and throat as well. Watch the sharp definitions on the inside of her elbows too.

Somewhere on this site I explain how I do my own gallery wraps. My work is large so I can show it with or without frames. You have to use a thicker stretcher though which is a lot cheaper than a frame.

I use Twin Brooks stretchers. I will get the URL later. They are sturdy, if not cheap, but reasonable and made exactly to size.

Just a thought
 

I hope you wont mind if I make a few more suggestions. I make these comments from fear that you mite lose the brilliance that is already there in her dress and complexion. Please do not misunderstand me I do agree with Allan in what he says in regard to light and shadow relationships but in this situation, in my humble opinion, it is not the way to solve the problem.

Your painting is finished and well done as is but a few minute touches. My suggestions are not a must but something to consider without making major changes.

In addition to my previous post please consider the following. I have indicated but a few places where you can soften some edges like the left elbow, chest area, jaw line and ear (not above the ear). This will give your subject a better indication of form. On the leg I suggest you introduce a halftone, where indicated, this to will give the indication of form as well.

Sincere regards,
mischa

Thank you once again.
Now I feel like I have to get my cup of coffee and read all the replies once again wile staring at my painting. Definitely don

Value massing
 

Hi Olena,

There is such a wonderful feeling in this portrait. The foliage has an abundant, lush, slightly wild look that goes with the romantic aura of the woman. You're really created a mood here. Very intriguing, and it hints at a story, so it crosses the line into figurative art which I like, also. I love the big, expressive brushstrokes and the colors!

I agree with Allan that the values in the shade (including the figure) need to hang together. The dress and skin could be lighter and warmer than what Alan has created in Photoshop (no offense, Allan) and still work. As it is now, the dress to our right is as light as the foliage, yet it has no feeling of light. The rest of the dress is too light, especially against the wall near the bottom, but it doesn't have enough feeling of shadow. Same with her chest. In other words, you are sending an ambivalent signal. To make this area recede into the shadow yet not make it too dark or cool, try adding some yellow-orange tones into the pink of her dress, etc., mixed with a very small amount of cool color. If you let the warm color predominate it will give life to the shadows.

I also want to mention the grin and teeth. To me, this is not subtle enough. I think maybe a slight smile might make us wonder what she is thinking.

Thank you for all of your input and help with figuring out how to finish this portrait. It took me longer than I expected to finish it. Also I ended up being in the process of moving from one apartment to another, but now I have more space and a real studio :) . And I just went to the airport to pick up my mom. She usually comes over to visit from Ukraine about once a year and I desperately want to spend some time with her. I hope to talk her in to modeling for me for a portrait in the nearest future.
Anyway, here is the portrait that I am working on. I did a few changes and now I think I

Lovely, intriguing, and mysterious, Olena. I can see you really worked on this but did not overwork it at all. That takes restraint and I'm really impressed with the result.

That's great Olena, a very beautiful work.

Olena,

This is a very successful piece and you should be proud of it. The color is rich and lively.

Painting a picture with foreshortening as I have said before is very difficult. Mine is taking me way longer than I thought as well.

Hi Olena,
I agree with the others that this a charming , fresh picture now and that you should not fiddle too much with it.

But I have some minor suggestions about the landscape, if you don