Head Study
 

Hi,

This is a 12"x16" head study of an 8-year old. It's in preparation for a larger piece, where she's sitting on the ground, wearing a tutu.

Cheers,

Holly

This is lovely! Nice rich skin tones. That is a very nice 'study'!

Ooops - critique section - the only thing that bothers me in the light triangle on her shadowed cheek -it just goes so low. I did keep looking to see if the tilt of her head is reflected in the line of the eyes, nose and mouth - it seems to be, but I still keep looking for some reason.

Hi Kim,

Thanks for the feedback. I like posting in the critique section as someone always points something out that wasn't apparent to me. I'll look at the triangle on her right cheek again, now I see that it needs to be darkened a shade, and much more of a gradual turn along the right edge and bottom. I need to darken the shirt strap that's in shadow as well. The purpose for this study was to check my palette and see how her facial structure turned out.

Thanks again,

Holly

It's lovely, Holly, but it looks like there are some alignment problems with the features. It's our tendency to try and put features on an even horizontal/vertical axis and when the model or reference is a few degrees off from that things can get skewed.

I suspect in the reference that the eye on our left is in reality a touch lower down than you've depicted it. The axis of the head in this painting is tilted slightly to the left at the top, which should make all the features tilted consistently that way too.

Can you post the reference?

Michele and Kim - excellent eyes. The outer edge of the eye on our left does indeed need to go down, the mouth is askew and the mouth and chin need to be pushed back.

I have posted a close-up as well as the larger composition, 20" x 24", however I haven't figured out what to do with the large empty background yet. Also does the position of the arm holding her foot read awkward? Although this reference is Photoshopped, that is how she was holding it, I've only filled out the part of her arm a little above her knee and above her wrist to try and make it read better.

Regards,

Holly

Yes I think the arm holding her foot does read very awkwardly. I like the big empty background, though. You can control the viewer's eye movement by darkening down parts of it.

Can you post some of the body and head reference photos before they were Photoshopped together?

This is the original body. I really liked the little girl simplicity of her holding her foot, and there were no other good body poses. Perhaps I should get her back for more pictures, sigh.

Holly

Beautifully painted head. Superb job on the modeling. The small drawing errors don't bother me at all. It's a painting not a photo. Speaking of which, great reference photo. I like the background values and color in the photo better than what you painted in your study.

I think you would be better served by trying to arrange a background that pleases you instead of merely trying to invent something. I think if you could get a small printer that can generate 4x6 prints on the spot, when you shoot, it would help you see if the pose and background are working.

I've been using a Canon CP-200 (see photo below) for this very purpose. I can pick up on small anomalies in lighting and pose that are difficult to spot through the viewfinder or on the LCD display. I don't know if your D100 is PictBridge dedicated like my D70, but you might want to look into this. The great thing is that my clients can sign off on an image right there and then, or if they have considerations, these can be addressed while everything is still set up.

It is a very nice 'study' indeed! I am trying to learn how to better critique my own paintings and I am doing so by reading posts and trying to critique what I see before the experts chime in. I'm able to see about half of what people point out before I read. My first impression of this work was wow! very nice. I do agree with the comments made about the pose of the hand and some of the small drawing observations, but to my less trained eye, they do not seem to be big huge problems. Good luck on the final piece. It will be nice to see how you deal with the background and final pose.
Amy

The curve of the spine determines where the head will be and it looks as if the head in your composite needs to be moved to the left.