Heather

Alexandra Tyng · 07-28-2006, 09:37 AM

Pat, this is magnificent! I love the whole thing, but especially the eye. It's so clear, innocent, and guileless. The soul you've put into this drawing seems concentrated on it, and radiates out from it.

I'm so impressed with how you managed the values. Did your experience drawing her from life help you with that? Do you feel that your camera recorded the value transitions accurately? What kind of camera did you use? I'm finding that, with my digital, I can capture a lot of detail, but sometimes the importance of certain colors is lost. I only noticed it by doing oil sketches from life and then comparing them to the photos. Certain color notes get toned down to the point that I would not have noticed them if I hadn't done the oil sketch first. I'm wondering if this translates into problems with value changes.

Pat Graham · 07-29-2006, 12:50 AM

Thank you, Mischa. I hope you have a wonderful time at the Adriatic coast sketching!

I appreciate your comments, Alexandra, thank you. I was wondering if this piece radiated anything at all other than a lovely pose, so I welcome your remarks.
Regarding the values - I don't feel drawing her previously helped me manage this, I just kept working until it felt 'right'. My digital camera is like yours in that I don't think it captured the value transitions accurately, but close enough for me to use the images for reference. If I were going to be serious about catching the full range, I would have to take a series of pictures spot metering on the darker portions and then a series focused on the lighter ones. (As you probably already know, cameras aren't able to capture the full value range -- lights end up over exposed, or darks, under.) Together I'd be able to see the full range of values in them and then work from a cluster of photos. My camera is relatively new, (Panasonic Lumix DMC -FZ7 Ultrazoom) so I'm still finding out what it's capable of doing for me. Have you used a 35mm SLR in the past? If so, did you have better color results using it compared to your digital camera? Hmmmm...I'll have to dig through my stacks of photos and compare those from my 35mm SLR against my digital prints....

Pat

Mike McCarty · 07-29-2006, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Sensor Pixels

The pixels in digital compact cameras are substantially smaller than those of digital SLRs with a similar pixel count. As a consequence, the pixel size is substantially smaller. This explains the lower image quality of digital compact cameras, especially in terms of noise and dynamic range.

I don't mean to distract from your beautiful painting, but your concerns regarding value range are touched on in this excerpt above.

Pat Graham · 07-30-2006, 03:26 AM

Thanks for the excerpt, Mike. I wish I could've sprung for a digital SLR, but didn't have quite enough to cover the cost of one. Oh well......maybe some day!

Pat

Alexandra Tyng · 07-30-2006, 10:17 PM

Pat, I have a Nikon D 50 digital. It works very well for me, and the color is magnificent if I look at the images on the screen, but prints are not as good.

Terri Ficenec · 07-31-2006, 01:07 AM

Pat-- I'm late commenting on this (sorry!) . . . Just wanted to say how much I like it and especially how sensitively you've handled the light on her. Very beautifully done!

Pat Graham · 08-28-2006, 10:22 PM

Thank you, Terri.

I appreciate your remarks.

A little side note, here.....'Heather' just won Best of Show at a large, annually held art show in my region. I'm still excited about the news! Yippeee!

Pat