Help please, cropping and edges

[Joan Breckwoldt]

I have two photographs that I am happy with of a 3 year old girl. This will be my first commission. I had each 5"x7" blown up and lightened so I could see some of the detail in the shadows. Next time I'll use the big white board I brought along, though when I held it up to her face for some reflected light it looked like (to my eyes) that ALL the shadows on her face disappeared.

I would very much like to use these photos but I would like some help with where to crop them. I think I will do just a dark solid background, or almost solid. I also would like this to be a somewhat large portrait, but don't want to get a 'giant head' in the portrait. Seems I read somewhere that heads shouldn't be more than lifesize, nor should they be 'monkey heads' which I think means 7/8 or 3/4 of lifesize? I would like to make this portrait larger than 18"x24".

But, probably my biggest concern is how I am going to deal with that white dress against a dark background in the photo where she's looking at the camera. I don't want to have a line down the middle of the painting where the dark is separated from the light dress, though my gut tells me there is something pleasing about this vertical line if treated correctly.

I included the 2 smaller photos because they have nice color, when the photos were enlarged to 10"x15", some of the color washed out.

Thank you all, I look forward to hearing what everyone has to say.

Joan

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Here is a digital photo of the 10"x15" of the first photo:

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Here is another digital photo of the 10"x15" photograph. This is a second pose.

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Finally, here are the two 5"x7" photos that captured this little girls coloring.

[Mike McCarty]

joan,

If you make your portrait something close to life size, I chose an 8" head, it will come out to close to 26" vertical. This would leave about 2.25" above the head.

In the other photo her pose doesn't appear to be as tall.

[Joan Breckwoldt]

Mike,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my post. Is this how you would crop this photo for the portrait? I am concerned there might be too much 'empty space' on the left side of the girl as we are looking at the portrait. I know I don't want to crowd her against the edge since she is facing that direction, but what do you think?

Joan

[Mari DeRuntz]

Hi Joan,

She's a beautiful little girl.

As for composition, the most useful approach might be to do several very small pencil "thumbnail" sketches. They show you pretty quickly what is and isn't pleasing to your eye.

If you have a photo-editing program, like Photoshop, you can use it to tame that background. I've attached an image as an example.

I like the image Mike altered for the same reasons he stated, however, the thumbnail shows me that you're going to have a potential problem area in the anatomy of the neck. You want to beware that the head doesn't look "cut and pasted" on.

[Mari DeRuntz]

I'd also allow for more eyeroom on the right-hand side of the image; one useful "guideline" is to center the eye you're going to use as your center of interest horizontally.

I've attached a black and white copy of your image to illustrate the other thing you may have to be wary of: the lights have all been flattened to the same values.

One thing that would help immensely would be if you could sit her in front of a video and do a head/shoulders charcoal study or head/shoulders oil sketch. You could note critical information like values, color and edges.

I hope this is helpful; she's such a cutie - and I would love to paint her myself! I love the dress you've chosen. I've turned into a monster when I shop with my nieces; all I want to do is accessorize and paint them! They're VERY spoiled at the holidays.

Please keep us posted on your progress.

[Mike McCarty]

Is this how you would crop this photo for the portrait? I am concerned there might be too much 'empty space' on the left side of the girl as we are looking at the portrait.

Joan,

Speaking about the photo of the girl in the more upright pose, the space in front of her doesn't bother me personally, if you include the full figure. In my opinion, when you begin to reduce this space you will also want to come up from the bottom as I indicate with the cropped image below.

If you reduce to the cropped image you will have a hard time makeing this painting as big as you indicate you would like.

I've never been able to create a perfect reference. I like your approach with these simple uncomplicated compositions. Your challenge will be to pull some life from the extremes of dark and light.

[Mike McCarty]

P. S. I think what you have here is a very photogenic child. I see in her expression that she has an understanding of what you are trying to do. She is a gift to a portrait artist.