Wedding present

Julie Deane · 06-21-2005, 11:34 AM

Sharing a wedding present I did for a relative - the young man is my nephew. I was there for a short while before the wedding, and did a pencil portrait of them as a gift. There is more detail in the shading than I can show with my low pixel camera, but it gives the general idea.

The young lady wears her hair like this all the time, wasn't thrilled with posing (shy) and didn't have any clothes other than t-shirts and her wedding dress and preferred informallity.

The signature is placed in an odd location to cover up a stain. I had to borrow a pencil to use its eraser, and it was OLD and left a dark pink line. Got rid of most of it, but needed to cover up somehow. Lesson learned: NEVER NEVER use someone's supplies without checking first!

Patricia Joyce · 06-21-2005, 01:51 PM

They must love this Julie! It's great!

Julie Deane · 06-21-2005, 11:43 PM

Thanks. I see some values in his right cheek that I could have toned down. And on the girl's left side, her hairline could have curved more. Doncha hate it - when something is not quite right and you can't go back and fix it?

But, seriously, this is up for critique, so feel free ....

Claudemir Bonfim · 06-22-2005, 09:56 AM

It's a lovely drawing Julie.

I'm only not sure about his eyes, I don't know if they are following the same line.

Claudemir Bonfim · 06-22-2005, 09:58 AM

it's something very subtle, maybe a camera distortion, or some shadows...

Julie Deane · 06-23-2005, 10:53 AM

Thanks Pat and Claudemir -

Claudemir, thanks for your helpful comments. I had to laugh - that "eye thing" has happened before to me with other pieces I've done. I have been trying to pay special attention to it, as one of my personal idiosyncracies to look out for.

I wish I could go back to the original and check it, but it is now in New Jersey and I am back in Georgia.

In this case I think the problem may be a result of the quality of the photo . I was really frustrated: I couldn't seem to manipulate the art in Photoshop to show a value difference between the pupil and the iris in his right eye. Without that visual information, the eye does look off. I had to up the contrast and brightness on this shot, which took out some subtle value differences. I'm attaching a closeup, but still can't get the contrast correct - maybe it will help some?