Last minute doubts

[Ilaria Rosselli Del Turco]

Grethe, maybe the shoulders are a little too wide, especially his right one.
Maybe you have already done this, but try and look at the painting in a mirror: it willl help you see it with fresh eyes. I would also be careful about the shape of the head on the right which seems to get smaller than the neck.
My last comment regards the bottom of the painting. This is a personal fixation of mine, that I have against vignetting. I believe that it is quite difficult to choose this sort of finishing only in one area, while the canvas is covered everywhere else.
The torso is the plinth for your head, it needs a solid base to sustain the weight of the head, otherwise the whole of the figure could loose credibility.
I think Dan has given you an excellent suggestion that would rid you of the most problematic areas, maybe you could leave a little more above the hair
Ilaria

[Grethe Angen]

Julie, my concern is everything but the likeness. I am happy with the expression on his face too.
Dan , thanks.Good point about having too much canvas, but how would I crop an already stretched canvas? I think I will have to live with this size, or start a new.
Ilaria, I will correct the shoulders and probably the neck a bit too. Thanks for your help.Maybe it is the attempt at vignetting that looks so disturbing to me. Sometimes its so hard to tell whats wrong. This is my first oil commision ever, so I want it to look right.

[Debra Norton]

Grethe, cropping a canvas is easy. The first thing to do would decide how you want it cropped. I do this by taping adding machine tape to my painting, trying different croppings until I come up with what I like. Then I measure and move the measurement up or down to the whole inch so it will fit on new stretcher bars. Removing the canvas from the old stretchers is just a matter of taking out the staples or tacks. Aligning the new stretchers correctly on the painting can be a bit tricky so what I've learned to do is put straight pins into the exact corners, and with a pencil mark the back side of the canvas where the pin comes through, then you have your placement for the new bars.

The next step is stretching the canvas which I won't go into here because Garth posted a good demo on how to do it. It's called "Successfully stretching preprimed linen." I'm sorry but I don't know how to refer you to it the right way, (I'm rather computer challenged) maybe someone will help me out and do this for me? Or you can find it through doing a search.

[Grethe Angen]

Thanks Debra, so then cropping might be the best thing to do. What is the best size for head shoulders ?, I am thinking of future portraits. or is it a good idea to paint on unstretched canvas? I thought I had composed it quite well but it turned out not so.