Little Boy

[Lara Cannon]

Hello,

It looks like you are really close to being done! Just a few finishing touches would make an improvement. I think the suggestions above are good. The nose is slightly short and that stands out the most to me. The upper lip could use a small shadow to set the teeth back away from the curve of the lip.

As I flipped back and forth between your subject and painting I also noticed the top of the head could use a little attention. The roundness of his head, where the hair meets the scalp could use a little more tweaking. It is a little flat where his hair stands up in the back. One idea I have been working on is looking how the light falls in patterns (when dealing with hair). And then think about how those patterns define the round/oval head underneath.

Don't despair! It is good and it is almost done.

Lara Cannon

[Chris Blight]

Thanks both Lara and Alan, good suggestions and will definitely look at that soon. Someone also mentioned that the background might look better a little offwhite, and as I hadn`t decided what colour to do that I will try that.

Will try and do an update soon.

Chris

[Linda Brandon]

Hi Chris,

Welcome to the Forum! I like the way you handle paint.

Two quick suggestions: I would darken the value of the shadow under the boy's chin, and I would gray down the color intensity of his eyes. I would start with a neutral blue/gray and add a strong blue only if necessary.

[Garth Herrick]

Hi Chris,

I welcome you too! I love the punchy colors that are not dependent on the muted ones in the photo. I also love your easy casual style.

Forgive me but I am giving you one of my typical heavy-handed Photoshop analyses. The weakest part of your portrait is in the likeness and facial proportions. I scaled the photo to match the painting, and let the images speak for themselves. If you have not scaled your photo to the same size as your painting yet, I highly recommend that you do. This will help immensely to keep proportions in check.

To match the scale, I took the measurement from the top of the hair to the bottom of the chin. The eyes, nose, and mouth are set too high, although the ear is just right.

I think the eyes are too dark and harsh a blue, although in general I like your interpretation of color.

Thanks for sharing this. I hope I am not being too hard on you.

Garth

[Chris Blight]

Right. I hope you don`t mind but I`ve done a Photoshop paintover to try and make certain of what you are all saying and see if they work, including darkening under the chin and the eyes and a bit more work on the hair. On the anatomy issue, definitely right and something I might use in the future. But on this occasion I`m going to leave the painting as it is because it isn`t that important that I get it correct to the original picture, but a good idea for future portraits.

Please let me know if I`ve got it right. And the harder the critique the better, as far as I`m concerned. So much to learn.

Chris

[Garth Herrick]

It does look even better than before, Chris. They will love it.

Garth

[Chris Blight]

Thanks Garth and everyone who took the time to comment. I`ve painted the photoshop adjustments now and post the final image.

Thanks again.

Chris