Riley

[Michele Rushworth]

Bet the mom is happy you captured her daughter in these photos before the hack job on the hair! (My daugthers have also taken matters into their own hands as far as hair styling goes!)

I agree with everything Marvin has said about how you're the expert and should try to convince the client of why your vision would work, but I also love the feet! If YOU love them, I think you can find a composition that works. Then everybody's happy.

[Marvin Mattelson]

Am I the voice of sanity? Perhaps insanity! However I think that including her feet is a mistake. Because they are unclear and the shapes are neither descriptive nor beautiful. You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, so why even try?

Here is a painting of feet by one of my heroes, Monsieur Bouguereau. How good was his reference? I believe we tend to overlook the painstaking care the master artists took in assembling the necessary information they required to paint their great works. The truly great ones are those that continually went the extra yard.

If I'm unsure about any aspect of my painting I ask myself, will including it make the portrait better or worse?

[Linda Ciallelo]

I love the photo. I would include the feet, but make the one piece of white fabric that sticks up past the sofa, lay down on the top of the sofa. I would choose the second version of the photo. It reminds me of Alma-Tadema.