My first in many years - in progress!
 

For all of you that helped me earlier, thank you.

Here is my progress with my oil of Madeline:

The detail of the face, still in progress:

This is the detail of the hands, still in progress:

This is the reference photo. Since this "oil" seems so formal compared to the pastel, I decided to take some artistic license with the background.

Beth,

This is shaping up very nicely.

Be careful about that leg on our right. In the photo, that knee is somewhere out of the picture, whereas in the painting it appears that you might have tried to keep it in by raising that leg up, which creates a somewhat awkward appearance of extreme foreshortening, and also makes her look off balance. She needs to have that leg down on the plane of whatever she's seated on. I would actually copy the flower pattern in the photo at that point, letting the petals get lopped off by the bottom border, suggesting the continuation of the leg beyond the border. The pattern that you have in place now makes it look like we're actually looking at the knee straight on.

Wow Steven, you are right, I didn't even notice that. I will fix that or enter her into the Circus.

Do you think the background is working? Please say yes, I don

The background seems to be to be shaping up okay, too, though there is some peril if you let those flowers get too defined in detail or prominent in hue and intensity. She's of slight build and presence and could easily be overwhelmed by the colorful background. I guess now that I'm looking at them, I might also tone way down the flower pattern in her pants, maybe by painting the flowers a different shade of the pink in the rest of the fabric.

Also to the point of the visual power of those flowers, I think you're losing some of the girl's impact by bringing around her head a background color so close to the color of her hair. You might find that a contrasting color and value (such as the darker violets elsewhere in the background) will push that background back and bring the girl more prominently to the fore, thereby keeping her "more important" than the flowers.

No "rules" in play here, I'm just giving impressions out loud.

That too makes sense! I was thinking in my value sketch that I could lose the edges of her hair the way I have done it. That seemed to be an issue with the pastel I did of her with a different pose. I did try to keep in mind the "rule" warmer/closer, cooler/further away. But I liked how the colors were working together with this. I

As someone who has always had trouble with color temperature theory and the qualities it supposedly imparts (I'm a "blue" guy and somewhat resent its consignment to the cold, distant job assignment), I was amazed to discover in Daniel Greene's color video that he also disagrees with the "accepted rule" of cool colors receding and warms advancing. His feeling is that value contrast and edges have much more to do with the effect. That was my own experience when doing charcoals of antique plaster masks and busts. I could create substantial depth without any color at all, so to insist to me that the aerial perspective effects of hue were the determining factor in depth never made any sense to me.

Anyway, to sign off in the fashion of artists dwarfing me, "Watch your edges."

Back and forth
 

Rather than repeat myself here is a link to a recent post from yours truly:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...0&pagenumber=1

I hope it helps.