Red Scarf - study

Bob Bissett · 12-12-2004, 02:03 AM

This was unplanned. She struct this pose naturally with half the sun already below the mountain. Luckily I had the camera. After an hour of cropping, filtering, layering, masking and painting on the 'puter this is pretty close to what I thought I saw, but was only half there in the photo. My idea was 48x24". Red-green palette. Would hope for some serious critic from those with a better eye than mine.

Steven Sweeney · 12-12-2004, 12:18 PM

There may be occasion to paint that as is, but in terms of traditional portraiture as well as realistic and believable color, the chroma (intensity) of the scarf is very, very high, and the value is a bit too light, especially in this back-lit subject. This would be a portrait of a scarf, with an incidental figure. I'm reminded of drawings and photos done in black and white, with a single object in color; that can be very effective, but it's obviously manipulated and not realistic.

I do like the backlighting itself and would work to make that more prominent in the overall effect. By reducing chroma and value of the scarf (which clearly remains "red" for your thematic purpose, albeit "red" in the "true" lighting of this pose), you can play up that backlighting.

You will have other challenges, such as modeling the heavily-shadowed coat (as well as the scarf) to avoid a cut-out look -- perhaps your original photograph has more information in it than we're seeing in this manipulated version. But just this rather ham-fisted adjustment to the scarf already, I think, brings the figure more to life:

Steven Sweeney · 12-12-2004, 12:25 PM

P.S. I'd design the slope and lengths of the scarf ends so that they do not line up and create that long (attention focusing) triangle of color.

Mike McCarty · 12-12-2004, 12:30 PM

I would agree with Steven's comments. It might be helpful to see the original photo. Personally, I'm not a big fan of highly manipulated images. If your vision includes a sense of surrealism that's one thing, but if you loose track of too many bread crumbs it can be hard finding your way back to reality.

Hanna Larsson · 01-18-2005, 08:44 AM

Bob,

I think Steven and Mike are right, but I also understand why you liked what you saw and want to recreate it. I was inspired by your manipulated photo and manipulated it some more. This is what I felt needed to be tweeked in your photo for ME to belive it and maybe this could be a compromise between your and Stevens versions.
But I don't know if it is any more true to what you actually saw.
I say give it a shot if you feel like it...

Steven Sweeney · 01-20-2005, 04:45 PM

Not sure if this thread is still "active," but on a recent visit to the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, I had the opportunity to see Fredric Leighton's Miss May Sartoris and was immediately put in mind of Bob's intended work here. I'm not suggesting anything about the execution of either work, just noting the interesting similarities.

Bob Bissett · 01-20-2005, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Sweeney

on a recent visit to the Kimball Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, I had the opportunity to see Fredric Leighton's Miss May Sartoris and was immediately put in mind of Bob's intended work here.

Great painting. They do have some similar elements. That small gesture really adds a lot as does the scarf flowing to one side. May reshoot reference photos.