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Doing a little painting recently...
- Thread starter Sunstone
- Start date
Serpent Child
Member
Whom is it?
Vielen dank! My hair is so spiky one would almost assume i am a hedgehog in real life!
Vielen dank! My hair is so spiky one would almost assume i am a hedgehog in real life!
I confess I took some liberties with your hair. I also left out all the warts and pirate scars.
How kind of you
How kind of you
"Kindness" is my middle name. Either that, or "Kinky". I never can remember which.
It's 'Kinda Kinky'. Almost combines the two.
And you're painting random Aussies off the internet these days? Why wasn't I told?
BSM1
What? Me worry?
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
Your persistence is resulting in impressive progress. One vague piece of advice: create, don't recreate. Don't be afraid to apply exaggeration as a tool, especially in places where it makes a substantive impact, such as the eyes. I know painting face portraits is one of the most difficult artistic tasks one can do, but make sure you're seeing, and not just looking - and breathe the life that you see into the subject. I haven't touched a brush to canvas in a long time, so take any advice with a grain of salt.
Sounds like good advice. Thanks so much!
I feel I'm still in the very early stages of development as a portrait painter -- still learning the basics, and not quite ready yet to "break the rules" (my thinking is, you've got to know the rules before you can intelligently break them). But I think what you've told me is excellent advice. Thanks again!
She's an Aussie? Damn! I thought she was a hussy. My bad!
Kilgore Trout
Misanthropic Humanist
I have mixed feelings about that rule. It makes good sense on the surface, and many people would be well-served to follow it more. However, in my experience, if one spends too long focusing on mastering the "rules," they can often find themselves falling into the habit of technical perfection and never transition to actually "breaking the rules" to free up creativity, artistic interpretation, and individual style. Training your brain and eye in limited ways can be great for those ways, but detrimental when it becomes a long-standing, fixed pattern.
If you don't already do it, I would suggest interspersing your portrait painting with small-scale experiments into different ways and styles of interpretation and presentation - with anything that catches your eye. Don't let your artistic subconscious lag behind, as the key to impactful art (imo), is in the details that bring out a subtle essence of whatever it is you're portraying.
You have some excellent skills with conveying light and hue of the skin, btw. This is a difficult thing to do well. I always found myself oversimplifying in this regard to avoid the inevitable frustration with making it worse the more I tried to do.
I'm going to take your advice to intersperse portrait painting with experiments into different ways and styles of interpretation. Thanks, Kilgore! You've always been helpful.
Skwim
Veteran Member
A very nice study, but a few of suggestions for when you go to tackle the future portrait, if I may.
Downplay the nostrils a bit more, and if you keep her hand in the picture show more of it. As it is, her fingers tend to look like a strange part of her neck. Also, I'd soften the sharp edge of the left eye socket next to the nose. Judging from the light on her left cheek keep in mind that's the direction your main light is coming from. I'd also make sure the left side of her nose reflects this light as well. And because you have a strong light coming from the left you may want consider darkening the right side of her face a bit, including the left side of her nose.
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Downplay the nostrils a bit more, and if you keep her hand in the picture show more of it. As it is, her fingers tend to look like a strange part of her neck. Also, I'd soften the sharp edge of the left eye socket next to the nose. Judging from the light on her left cheek keep in mind that's the direction your main light is coming from. I'd also make sure the left side of her nose reflects this light as well. And because you have a strong light coming from the left you may want consider darkening the right side of her face a bit, including the left side of her nose.
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Thanks for the advice, Skwim.