Getting paint on the canvas

Well, I decided I'd go ahead and make some decisons and get some paint on the canvas to get me going.

Yesterday I attended an on line live chat with artist Dawn Whitelaw sponsored by The American Artist Magazine that was very helpful to get me going with this portrait. During the chat she answered a couple of general questions and then sent me a nice follow up email.

Advice from the chat: Dawn Whitelaw

Phyllis, if you know the sitter it always brings something else to the ptg. If you don't know the person,
you have to make an assessment about them in a short time. With children you have to imagine who they will be in the
future. There will be characteristics that are inherent, you get a sense of what they are going to look like when they are
older. Look at the parents or the siblings. you want to get the characterstics of them that will stay as they age.

Advice from email: Dawn Whitelaw

Phyllis,


Here are my suggestions for the portrait of your grand daughter. Remember that they are suggestions. All I can tell you is what I would do. The ultimate decision is yours. I would keep the background very simple.I am attaching two roughly done ideas. Because the light on the subject and the background is different, you run the risk of having the figure looking "cut out." To help prevent this, some light needs to travel into the background. I lightened the sides of the columns and enlarged them a little bit. I would eliminate the fence, and buildings in the background. . I brought some more white flowers in to the big pot. The flowers in the background could be left in to echo the flowers in the front. I would not add more pots of flowers in the front. On her face, keep the creases under her cheeks warm and lighter than the photo reference. I also lightened some of the foliage in the pot behind her hair. I would love to see your results. Good Luck

Thought process: Make the background fuzzy, only have one plant, increase the size of the columns. Find a way to fill the right side of the canvas without taking the focus off Carley Ann,

Mistakes: I think Carley Ann should have been closer to the center of the canvas. I also think I should not have used that black pastel to block in my drawing. I'm going to use some sealer to help get rid of the pastel dust, but I don't think it will help that much. I may have to put several layers of paint on the canvas to get rid of all that black and get her skin color right.