Critique Please
 

Please critique on color and use of lighting. This is my second watercolor portrait, just for your info, so I want all flaws pointed out in order to learn :)

Hi, Jennifer.

Your subject's gaze is surely riveting.

Did you by any chance take this posting with a flash? (If you did, try again in natural light & no flash.) I'm finding almost all values to be in a very narrow range, producing a flattening effect.

A lot of definition of the mouth & chin is lost, and I don't feel you gave the shirt much attention.

I personally find watercolor far too demanding a medium, and far tougher to correct. Have you ever tried oils?

Keep it up!

Hi David,

That may be the scanner alot of light got to it because it was still on the strecher platform. I will post a better picture.

The shirt was left undetailed on purpose I wanted that to recede in the background and have the face stand out :)

This picture is probably better but still not perfect.

I will also post a closeup
http://forum.portraitartist.com/imag...mages/lynn.jpg

I might switch to oils later but it is expensive and messy for now I have to stick to watercolor.

Do you think I would get better results with oils?

It is a hard medium (watercolor) to work with once you make a mistake it is almost unfixable.

Thank you also I was doing this from a bad photo all the color was washed out so it was challenging perhaps from a flash I am not sure.

The chin is a fat one though there were heavy lines but I thought that was due to the photo since there was only real light and real dark areas.

Any comments on that??

Thanks for the critique David.

Jen

Jennifer,

Much better!

As you'll see below, the symmetry of the eyes and nose is bang on, but I feel his mouth is a little too far left, and his chin too far right?

(Please excuse me if your subject's features truly are a little "asymmetrical"!)

Oil paint can make contrasting values easier to achieve.

Good luck!

Hi David,

Yea his mouth and chin was asymmetrical. I think it is the way he moved his mouth or his smile, or whatever.

In the photo the asymmetricalness (is that a word?) is even more pronounced since the chin has dark shadows in it, almost an outline in the photo.

Although thinking about it if I add a centimeter or just a wee bit to the bottom left side of the lip it would look better and more accurate.

To be honest the lips was the hardest thing to do since they were so small and thin and weirdly shaped. I noticed that alot of people have asymmetrical faces especially if they make a slightly odd expression.

Thanks David for the help. One day I would like to work in oils but watercolors are easier for me now (and require less space).

We have very little room for an easel and all (sigh).

I know that oil is fixable but doesn't it require more patience? It takes a long time to dry right? Plus you need to know more about the chemistry of oils in order to handle them correctly?

I think I have tried oils once, and the results were bad that was probably me though and not the oils :)

Well thanks,
Jen

Re oils
 

Oils are very forgiving; less so water-color. (Understand this is just a hardened bias from someone who hasn't tried a new medium in decades!)

There's no real "chemistry" to learn though. Color mixing in oils is not a great departure from mixing the colors you use now. It is a messier clean-up though.

Yes, oil takes far longer to dry to the touch, but there are many stages, so there's almost always something to do. Granted, it's not necessarily as easy to complete an oil in an afternoon, although I suppose you could ...

When I began in oil my whole "studio" fit in a box which I unpacked at the kitchen table each night. Little by little it can take over your house (and life!). Enjoy whatever you do, but create!

Most people have asymmetry in not only their faces, but their bodies. However, researchers have discovered that the more symmetrical a person is, the more beautiful they are considered to be. One of the reasons Elizabeth Taylor is considered so beautiful is because the two sides of her face are virtually symmetrical.

There was a series on one of the educational channels regarding this. The research of Dr. Stephen Marquandt was part of the basis behind the series. He has a very interesting web site at http://www.beautyanalysis.com. In there, he also discusses the Golden Section which Karin Wells has earlier posted on here. The page is hard to read because it's in frames, so I'm giving the url without frames here: http://www.beautyanalysis.com/mba_ph...OTTOM_page.htm