Thursday, March 3, 2011

Portrait Update

I am still working on that eye demo, which I should be finished with soon. In the meantime I've gotten a lot further on the portrait. At this point I am technically finished except for tightening up the shirt a bit. The shirt was very wrinkled and I promised I would not draw it that way, so it requires a lot of thought to get looking right. Its a fight between simplifying what  I see and keeping true to the light pattern on his  form.




I also need to photograph it better - despite my 10 MP camera and a tripod, my shots of my artwork are substandard. In this case washed out and grainy.

Update: Thank you my wonderful reader for the photography info - I've gotten a better picture which I added above. :-)

Sorry for the absence last week. The kids and I were off school and we spent our time redoing my oldest daughter's room with "older" furniture.


3 comments:

Jan Pope said...

Nicole,
Always enjoy your blog post and your work makes me drool and green with envy!

I was thinking about what you wrote about not being able to get a good shot of your artwork. You might not be able to get outside yet, but outside on a cloudy day is best for shooting. You get even light with no shadows. But in the summer I use my patio umbrella to diffuse the light and shot under it. Inside, I use two light, up aimed up so that is will bounce onto my artwork but is diffused and one aimed to the side. This works for me most of the time. You might even need a light box to shoot in if the windows from your studio cast shadows on your art. You can make one for yourself out of a box big enough to hold your art. Line it with white paper. You can make a hole for a light or bounce light into the box from outside.
Just some things I have learned...

--Jan

Robert Sisson said...

What di your daughter say about you taking her picture while she was sleeping?

Reflections From Life Art Blog said...

Nicole, what a lovely painting! Very nice work!

Nancy