New to Foliage..double portrait

Monique McFarland · 05-03-2007, 06:14 PM

Here is a commission I'm soon to wrap up....I'm new to the foliage thing and to glazing...Here is the painting, a link to a larger picture of it...any suggestions with the foliage and hints of color in the background would be appreciated. The kids are dry and thebackground is wet so they have a hazy appearance for now, I guess until it is varnished. Not a whole lot of experience with oils/glazing/varnishing...etc., learning as I go!

The size is 36x48, oil on oil primed linen...as I said, more to do on the background...need to push some of that foliage back some with glazes and blur the edges of the kids and drop some zingers in here and there with color and generally tie the whole thing together. Maybe more shadowing on them, in their clothing and where her ankles are crossed, etc., we'll see!

Asking for C&C here...thanks in advance!!

Monique

LINK TO larger photo of painting

Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco · 05-07-2007, 05:05 PM

Dear Monique, this is a fine work and especially strong in likeness.

I personally don't feel you should worry about the foliage, which you suceeded in pushing in the background though still retaining its feeling of reality.
The difference in light between the children and the background makes the portrait more theatrical, fairy tale like, they make me think of Hansel and Gretel !

Technically if you feel you want to work more on it, I think you could add some cooler greyer colours in the skintones, especially in the girl's legs and the boy's arm (maybe breaking the long strokes down the forearm and looking for structure, to avoid the pipe effect).

On a deeper level, though charmed by the perfection and elegance of the painting, I somehow find you are at risk of a certain coolness, distance.
I can sense an involvment on your behalf which is there but not completely expressed. I am not sure how you could do that, maybe opening the edges a little will help to achieve more movement and actively take control of the painting over the reference.

Ilaria

Tricia Migdoll · 05-08-2007, 03:33 AM

Very nice likeness, Monique - and i love the setting and the composition. I think you have captured these two beautifully.

I do think the painting would benefit from some softening of your edges. ... gently flicking in some of the surrounding paint into the flesh.

This is something i have recently learned, and which has made a big difference to my work. I hope it helps you some. Perhaps someone with more experience will jump in and expand on this.

Monique McFarland · 05-24-2007, 06:34 PM

Here is the painting after a few tweaks. I have had the HARDEST time photographing this painting! I'm going to use my better camera tomorrow and try to get another shot of it... Every picture using my small digital camera ends up hazy and grainy! It is going to be hard to see the changes I made using this picture.

Link to larger photo

P.S. If you open the links to this and my last update, side by side, you should be able to see all of the changes I made easier. Look at: changes in his hair outline, her fingers, outline on all edges, background, concrete bench they're on, his pants leg that's hanging down, shadows around his foot, etc.

Mischa Milosevic · 05-25-2007, 02:30 AM

This is fabulous! Wow! I can see the dedication and I am happy for you. They will love it! If I may make a suggestion or two. Now that you have the fern out of the way there seems to be a void. Is it possible to hint at some foliage in the background and to make the foliage believable hint at a light peaking through but a light that is ever so weak. Another thing, can you have her white shoe peak through a touch not much but a indication where the toe may be located.

All the best to you

Monique McFarland · 05-25-2007, 09:06 AM

Thank you so much Mischa! Haven't thought about the toe of the shoe through the ivy idea...i'll see about that. As far as the background, IRL it is not quite as flat and empty as it looks with this lame photo. There are are variations of greens and actually a hint, ever so slight, can still be seen of this fern if you look closely. it is just very subtle and blends in with the background ALMOST completely. As I said, I'm going to try to get a better photo of it today at some point and maybe it will pick it up. Thanks again for the response!