Sargent Studies

[Alla Primal]

I'm going to be doing some sargent studies and post my W.I.Ps here. Please give me critiques! If anybody wants to join in on the studies feel free to post them here I think my current study looks kind of fat, I need to spend more time on construction of the painting before I go into actually painting it.

[Lightship69]

Hi matey

Thanks for the invite to join in, very kind of you mate.
As to the image above yes he has been at McDonalds a lot hasnt he!! but to be fair to yourself you have picked a hard one to try, that huge olive drab mass in the middle is hard to get a handle on without serious anatomy knowledge in your arsenal. Also the guy does seem a bit of a porker too, I think all you can do is keep grinding at him and see what happens he is a long way down the road now and hard to change.

all the best with him. and I hope he works out.

[Alla Primal]

Thanks for the feedback! I tried to recover the coat.

[Alla Primal]

[Pavel Sokov]

He is way too wide in all areas of his body. His torso seems really short.
In fact I think the extremely crude method of taking the entire image and squishing it should fix it.

[Alla Primal]

He is way too wide in all areas of his body. His torso seems really short.
In fact I think the extremely crude method of taking the entire image and squishing it.

Thanks for your feedback. I notice how it's disportionate and squashed, and I know to spend more time on construction of the painting before I go into rendering now.

[Pavel Sokov]

Oh sorry mahons, looking back at my post i noticed i forgot to finish my thought.
I meant to say the crude method of selecting the entire image and squishing it width wise would probably fix the proportions of the body.

Also I don't think the guy is a porker at all! When i was looking at it through my i phone i thought his torso was a beer belly. But im on a laptop now and I see that you too likely missinterpreted the painting.

What you painted as a dark green value on the jacket is actually the dark values of the chair! I reffer to the trangular dark area creating between HIS right arm and torso. That is all chair! Raise the brightness on the screen or the image itself and you will see it as well. He can't be fat with such slim fingers and face.

[Velocity Kendall]

why not do a direct comparison in PS?
purists might say this is cheating but studies are for learning, not art creation, and this is a good error checking tool...

[Alla Primal]

Oh sorry mahons, looking back at my post i noticed i forgot to finish my thought.
I meant to say the crude method of selecting the entire image and squishing it width wise would probably fix the proportions of the body.

Also I don't think the guy is a porker at all! When i was looking at it through my i phone i thought his torso was a beer belly. But im on a laptop now and I see that you too likely missinterpreted the painting.

What you painted as a dark green value on the jacket is actually the dark values of the chair! I reffer to the trangular dark area creating between HIS right arm and torso. That is all chair! Raise the brightness on the screen or the image itself and you will see it as well. He can't be fat with such slim fingers and face.

Woah thanks so much, I didn't notice that about the chair! I thought his coat was just, puffy. Haha, I will try alot harder on the next study.

[Revidescent]

The comparison Velocity Kendall posted makes a few issues obvious, the most major one being that the figure's entire angle is off - he's tilted more to the left. You've also drawn his head a bit big, which contributes to the squished, wide feeling that others are pointing out.

You're also losing a lot of the subtleties of the colour. Of course, it's a WIP, and you've got most of the basic hues and values down pretty well, but take a closer look at the skin especially. The skin on the original has some far more saturated areas, which gives it a luminous feeling. Look at those oranges near his hairline, or in the shadow of his bent hand. When you miss all of those except the red of his lips, it just sort of looks like he's wearing lipstick.

Oh, and I don't know if you posted the tiny image just for the sake of the thread, but on the off chance that's the one you're actually working from, if you google around a bit there're higher res versions of the painting available. Sargent is great for studying brushwork, and most of that is lost in that tiny picture. If you're actually using a bigger one, uh, ignore me.

[Lightship69]

Hi matey

Just swung by to see how its going and i have to say, well done! its coming on great! you are really getting his face and the rest of him is coming into line too! keep going mate you will get him I just know it.

all the best with it.