In the Spotlight

[Alexandra Tyng]

Dianne,

How often do you see your granddaughter? I was wondering if you could set her up for a photo-shoot in really good lighting, in her costume if you want and she is cooperative, and simply start over again? I have to say I think this reference photo has insurmountable problems. Not only is the light and shadow pattern practically nonexistent, but also the light combined with the bright pink makes her skin look sallow. This kind of color needs a cool daylight,. I think. Not only that, her expression looks annoyed. I think she's a lovely little girl who deserves being portrayed at her best.

As Ilaria touched on the important points, I won't repeat any more.

As Ilaria mentioned the dark background adds to the "cut-out" appearance of the figure. I think that, rather than go into a long-winded explanation on backgrounds, I will follow your suggestion and start a thread on the subject.

[Michele Rushworth]

With such a lovely granddaughter to work with I would also highly recommend that you take some well planned photographs of her, to start with. Read the various photography threads before posing her, especially the threads on lighting. Then the next step might be to post the reference photos for critique before starting to paint.

[Alexandra Tyng]

Dianne, I have started a thread on backgrounds:

http://forum.portraitartist.com/show...4830#post64830

Hope it answers some of your questions. It will be interesting to see what others have to say on the subject.

[Dianne Gardner]

Alexandra,
I am planning to have this granddaughter and her sister come and pose for me in their costumes really soon. I will be doing as much studying as I can from the photography section of this forum. There is so much information here that its almost overwhelming but I hope I can glean enough to begin with to take some decent photographs. I have an older digital camera. I think they also are planning on doing a live sitting for me for at least a couple of hours. Jade sits really well and I used her in another open studio painting that I did. I can at least do some live studies to work from even if they don't sit long.

Michelle, I will post the reference photos to be critiqued. Thank you for that suggestion. I'm looking forward to this!

Alexandra, thank you for starting that thread. I will join you over there. I too am interested in the responses!

I am still going to take Ilaria's suggestion and finish this painting. I think I can make it work.

Thank you!

Dianne