Ophelia Portrait

My November Painter club assignment was to paint a portrait of a Shakespearean woman. We were give black and white sketches from classic paintings as reference pictures. This is one of Ophelia.

Part of the lesson was too get some dramatic lighting effects which would make the face stand out more. This was my final version.

Ooooh, this is so romantic and the skin looks so smooth and glowing. Well done on the hair also. My only crit might be that her neck seems a little thick. Otherwise I think your calling just may be portraits!

Hi Jan.
You pointed out a problem I have been trying to deal with. The original reference picture had the neck feeling very thick. I think that with the shadowing, it was supposed to represent some of the neck and part of the shoulder. Itis a difficult angle. In the one above I added more hair over the edge of the neck to try to take care of the problem, but it apparently still gave the same feel of thickness. In this revised one, I tried to do more shadowing to separate the neck from the shoulder. It helps, I think, but I'm not sure if it completely solves the problem. Oh well, that is why I keep taking classes and put my work up for review so I will learn more. What do you think of this new one?

Judy, even if you didn't do anything more to it, it would still be a wonderful portrait. Her skin glows and all the colors work well together.

She reminds me somewhat of a Modigliani painting and you might study his women to see how he handles those long necks in his portraits. Other than that, I have no suggestions as portraits certainly aren't my forte!

Thanks for all your input, Jan. I'm not one for painting portraits done by other painters, but this was a fun and challenging assignment and definitely a learning experience.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Judy