First portrait, my Mom-WIP

[Bill C]

Here's my new challenge. I posted it in comp & design for suggestions (more of you ought to visit that forum, great stuff). I've never done a portrait before so this ought to be a great adventure! Attached is the ref. photo and a thumbnail of how I'm planning to proceed.

She passed away last year after years of declining health, she was flat worn out at the end. I took this picture years ago while I was still a teenager. This is how I remember her!

[Bill C]

I've never been so nervous about starting anything! Not only my first portrait, but a subject that's very special to me, not to mention that I'll be doing it "in front of" all you experts. I've spent HOURS sketching and studing before starting this. Found Toni James excellent thread on a portrait WIP, it helped to finally get me going. Starting with a light umber under painting.
8 x 11 on Stonehenge paper with Prismacolors.

Here goes...........

[Bill C]

I'm just going to do a simple background of darks and lights. I'm going to use colors from the chair and her hair in the background. I plan to proceed as follows.

1. underpainting of face, hair and neck.
2. underpainting of chair and blouse.
3. first layers background.
4. color to chair, blouse and face.
5. finish background.
6. finish chair.
7. finish hair.
8. finish face and neck.
9. finish blouse.
__________________

[Bill C]

Lots of deep breaths here, hope the scan turns out. She's starting to stare back at me from the paper.

Looking at the scan I notice a couple of things. Her lower lip needs some work and her right eye looks smaller (may be the shadows.) Back to the drawing board!

[Bill C]

I'm heading to Louisiana tommorrow for the week (work.) Since I won't have access to a scanner this week I thought I'd post an ud.

[Bill C]

Here's an update. I'm at the stage where I'm ready to throw it out . This is taken with a digital camera so the quality may not be too hot. I'm in the process of darkening the background some. For skin tones I've used L.umber, beige, white and a little blush pink. I think her skin needs to be more pink but am leary to go too far. I've just started on the hair, not sure how it's going to turn out. Any suggestions will be GREATLY appreciated.

thanks

[Bill C]

she's looking lovely but i'm finding the dark brown behind her distracting...it creates a horizontal that does nothing to add to the painting. oh and answer to your questions LOTS MORE LAYERS.

[Bill C]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone, I'm definetly out of my comfort zone with this. Being my first portrait I feel more confident with a limited pallette for the skin tones (I'm not as brave as you dave) I do think I need some more pink and a lot more layers. I'll work on the shadow on her arm. Arlene, I hear what your saying about the dark horizontal in the background. I felt I needed the dark to provide contrast between the chair and bg, do you have any suggestions on how I could treat it differently?

thanks again

[Bill C]

Here's tonights ud. I worked on the shadows and other values on her face. I got brave and added some tuscan red in the darker areas. It's starting to come together.

[Bill C]

bill the solution is to fade it out more so it's not such a harsh line but fading from one color to the lighter color.

i know you're feeling timid about adding colors into the face, but i believe you need it desperately...go look at some of the portraits here and in in the portrait forum that you admire most and you'll see the one thing that each has is a boldness of color...even if the end result is it's subtle, if you look closely it's all there.

[Bill C]

OK teachers,

here's an update. Took a deep breath and added more tuscan red, black cherry, and dahlia purple (as well as light umber, beige and white). Also worked on the background some more.

[Bill C]

here's an update. 60 hours so far. I think I'm getting close so c & c are greatly appreciated. I'm thinking of doing her blouse pink (to match her lips), what do you think?

btw, I'm beginning to appreciate the Stonehenge, the more layers I put down the smoother it gets. Also, some areas of this piece have MANY layers, the Stonehenge is still taking them nicely.

[Bill C]

i think you still have a long way to go, and i'd like to see you be more bold with color. i played around with this a bit adding more contrast and more colors in the hair, and the skin. i brightened the eyes a bit, and brightened the chair too, but left the blinds as you had them.

i darkened her upper lip and made her lipstick a more natural color and not the baby pink teens wear. i added blues, seafoams, yellows and pinks to her. as for her shirt, i'd play with it in ps first before deciding on a color. i don't think pink would be the best color.

lastly i cropped it so she doesn't get lost in the picture. i think this way she looks more alive, and a bit impish.

[Bill C]

Added more color to skin and hair..........

[Bill C]

I think this is about done. Her right eye is bothering me and I can't figure out what's wrong. C&C is greatly appreciated. What else does she need?

[Bill C]

here's a close up......

[Bill C]

update, worked on the eyes, added darks to hair and also worked on shadows on her forehead.

[Bill C]

needs more separation from the background and more darks in the skin...

here i upped the contrast in your mom and lessened the contrast in the background and made it darker...that's the first picture.

the second is your latest done in grayscale and the third is what i did in ps in grayscale.

[Bill C]

I darkened the background and added some more darks to her face, better?

[Bill C]

yes much better. be proud of yourself!

[Bill C]

My Dad and sisters want prints, but the original will be hanging in my house. I've got about 80 hours in this, it was a very emotional experience. I found it difficult to work on consistently, I'd finish one stage and then let it sit for a couple of days, afraid to go on. I learned a lot doing this, portraits are much harder than other subjects. A barn or a turkey don't have to be perfect to look like a barn or a turkey. A portrait doesn't have to be perfect to look like a person but must be very close to look like the right person. It was amazing how little changes made a significant difference.

There is no way this would have turned out as well as it did without all of you. It's like having a room full of artists to encourage, suggest, and teach each other.

THANKS!!!!

now to figure out what to do next!

[Jazz]

Bill your Mom was a beautiful lady but I guess you know that already :)

I think you did a wonderful job with this portrait, I can see humour in her eyes and a barely suppressed grin :) .

I know I am going to feel the same way as you when I get round to doing my four generations portrait, as it includes me, my mother, my grnadmother (who died several yrs ago) and my daughter Emma (who died at ten months old, about 3 weeks after the photo's were taken).

So it will be a very emotional but special experience when I do mine, so I know where you were coming from with what you expressed about your portrait of your Mom.

You did a beautiful tribute to her.


Huge hugs,

ALI