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Originally Posted by Terri Ficenec
Was this painted from life?
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Terri, I sketched her face on paper, took some photos, and realized after I took the photos that I was getting some kind of photo distortion no matter how far away I placed my camera or what zoom I used. When I say 'distortion' I mean that she just didn't look the way I saw her with my eye - the photos tended to drain the S-curve energy I saw in the pose. So I sat down and read everything I could find about figure perspective. Basically, what you want to do is establish an eye level and look up at her head and hands and down at her feet. (I went to several museums last year and sketched lots of full-sized figurative works and confirmed for myself that this is what a lot of artists did.) I ended up reshooting the foot with another model and wrapped the shawl over Half Nelson, my stuffed long underwear model (I do this a lot) to get some life practice in with fabric folds. Sorry to be so long-winded.
Many thanks to everyone, including Percy, for the kind remarks - they are much appreciated.