What lovely lifelike color in the skintones! However, the face still doesn't have near the value range of the reference photo, or of the Vermeer.
It may have been a specific choice on your part to go with a low contrast ratio (which means having a rather subtle difference between the light and shadowed areas, as opposed to a more dramatic difference), though I think you would have a much stronger painting if you went even farther with the shadows.
As it is, the jacket, with its strong range of value, dominates the picture.
As for Tony Ryder's technique, yes he does use small brushes. One would think this would be a very slow method, but ironically I think it saves me tons of time in rework because I get it closer to being right the first time.
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