Blooming Flower
 

16" x 24" Oil. Painted last summer, this portrait actually started out to be a landscape. My neighbor was so lovely there, she became the focus. Comments for future pleine aire portraits most welcomed!

Very nice, Jeanine. All she needs is a glass of tea. There is one area I would soften, the edge of the collar. It is the only part not consistent with the soft harmony throughout the rest of the painting. I really like the skin tones with the shirt colors reflecting on them. The landscape colors work very well with subject. Nice.

Mark Gil

Lovely. I agree with Mark about the collar. When I first saw the painting, I didn't notice the collar. It is silly, but after I read his comment. I can't see anything else but that sharp edge ;) Go figure....

It's possible, too, that the attention being drawn to that collar is instructive, just for that reason. The overall softness of line and presentation is lovely, but it does to some extent leave the subject indistinct from the background. (Squint down just even a bit, and much of the figure disappears into the background.) I fussed around in PhotoShop a bit with this (just playing, nothing postable) and darkened the darker parts of the hair, especially those areas that were already identified as quite "dark" (as next to her face, on the viewer's right), and it definitely seemed to pull the woman forward, out of the background.

You especially asked about plein air portraiture, but I think some considerations apply to any venue. I might not have, for example, let the top of the head align with the top of the line of grasses, or had any tall grasses or plants "emanate" from the head. I airbrushed a lot of that out and I thought the effect -- emphasizing the figure -- was quite substantial.

Cheers,
Steven

Great comments! The collar had been made hard while the subject discussed her plans to get her Masters in Finance. :) Guess that came through.