Oil painting – work in progress

[Gwendlyn Domingo]

[Josseline Jeria]

Hi Gwendlyn

This is a great portrait! I find myself interested in the sitter, wanting to have a conservation and get to know her. That’s not something that all portraits capture, so well done for achieving that.
Lovely complimentary colour scheme. The variation in colour temperatures in her face is nice. I would say that in areas like her upper eyelid and socket, the crease indicating the plane where the cheek terminates next to her nose, and the creases either side of her lips would benefit from softer edges. Rounder forms = softer edges. It can read like a line when we look at it, but it’s plane and form changes. Indicating with changes in value, hue and/or colour temperature can achieve the desired effect without having to use a hard line. I struggle with this myself. I’m not experienced enough to give more feedback, but I hope this helps.

All the best

[Gwendlyn Domingo]

Thank you.  This is painted from a photograph.  Therese was my husbands 100 year old grandma who passed away this year in feb.  I painted this as a tribute to her memory, and yes given how long she lived and experienced life, she was a great conversationalist.

i truly appreciate your input and I’m going to work on it.  Thank you Josseline.

it.

[Josseline Jeria]

Thank you for sharing that with me. That is so wonderful of you to be creating this piece as a tribute to her life. She truly does seem like she was a kind person.

Seeing the photo I think you could actually benefit from neutralizing and lightening the background, and perhaps her blouse too. Keep the same hues, as they’re lovely, but experiment with that. I think it will help soften the overall image, which I think could emphasize her kind and wise appearing nature, and draw even more attention to her face. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to do some rough colour thumbnails/studies to explore this.

Keep us updated with how it continues to develop 🙂

[Kara Crisp]

I love the cool tones in the photo. I think they accentuate the beautiful warm tones in her face. I think the warm background competes with it. Beautiful portrait ♥️

[Jim Fitzgerald]

You definitely captured her likeness, but the image looks a little flat and appears as if the portrait itself was pasted on a background; the sitter should be “in” the same atmosphere as the background, which is exactly how she appears in the photo. A painting – or a portrait in this case – is a “whole”, comprising the subject(s) and the background; they are not separate things, just different parts of the whole.

Adjust the background or try adjusting the skin and hair so it’s “in the same light”, adjust the hair and shoulder edges (neutralize and soften the edges) so they roll off into the background (her left shoulder works better than her right). As another poster mentioned, you may also want to soften the nasal labial folds (lines from the nose down toward the mouth), and the marionette (or “puppet”) lines from the corners of the mouth down to the jaw; they may appear dark, but should have a small, softer, rolling plane into them.

Search for and study some other portraits. There are obviously many to choose from, but look at “the best”. Study Sargent for some nonpareil examples, or even Cesar Santos for a wonderful contemporary perspective, or your personal favorites.

Good luck and sorry to hear about her passing.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by Jim Fitzgerald.

[Joshua Jacobo]

@ChrisLegaspi has critiqued your work @gwendlyndomingo-4190!

[Gwendlyn Domingo]

Thank you Chris,  appreciate you critique and  definitely incorporating the changes.Thank you once again.

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