My first submission

[Sharon Knettell]

Linda, for future reference, I would always suggest a 35mm camera with a 50mm lens for body shots and an 80mm lens for head shots to 3/4. With 35mm film and a very sharp lens (I use Nikon) you can get large, even life-size blowups to put up next to your canvas. This way you can see your reference and the painting at the same time. You can also compare them in a mirror which reveals a lot of errors.

The digital prints are too grainy to do this unless you have a $20,000 camera. I find that a lot a people use too small a print, which makes their work tighter. I like to get the head blown up to my working size, an enormous help, especially when placed directly next to the portrait. Also, you can get custom work done more cheaply. For example, if a portion of the print is too washed out, say the hands, you can have the printer darken them.

Also, I have had excellent luck with Portra NC 160, a Kodak film developed especially for portraits. The light tones are not washed out and the shadows are not black. That and a portable silver reflector and I am good to go!

Good luck for the future, you have already received some really good advice from the pros here, but I do have a few comments.

A: The gold of her hair and gown calls out for a dark dramatic background. The dark background would highlight her hair and allow you to get richer tones in the gown.

B: Always try to shoot figures at the waist, it gives a more regal look. This does not work on people with full chins as they have to look down and that accentuates it. Also some older women look better if they are seated and looking slightly up as that smoothes out the chin.

C: I'm not so sure I like the stripes as that again detracts from the figure.

D: With a young adult such as this you can use stronger, more interesting lighting on the face. Look at good fashion photos for interesting ideas.

E: Your painting size is too small for the figure. Most professional portrait artists like to work same size as the figure. I prefer an 8" head on an adult female, so in my calculations the figure mid-calf would be 7 heads high X 8", the figure alone would be 56". See the thread on figure size and my body proportions. I do my figures based on an 8 head figure.

Notwithstanding my caveats you really have a beautiful start here.

Sincerely,