Photo and drawings of new project

Here is a photo of Mom ( @ 1941 ) and two drawings of same. I'm going to paint over one. Which do you like the best?

Nice pencil work Linus.

I like the first pencil sketch best. (more features and less garment)

If I may make a few suggestions: her neck could be drawn a bit thinner. In the photo, her neck is quite slim. The angle of the blouse neckline in the drawing is also different from the photo.

Best of luck!

Linus,

It is interesting to look at the two sketches. The left one appears to be capturing the facial features of an older women as you would see her now, while the right-hand one captures the freshness of youth.

Both are well done.

Judy

Before I scrolled down, I noticed that the drawing on the right is more youthful, as in the photograph. So, I agree with Judy that the one on the right matches your Mother's age. Great drawings!
Dayle

The drawings look wonderful! I agree with both Alan's and Judys' observations.

Looking at the three together, I still like the right, younger version, but one thing bothers me about it. Her face is turned more toward the camera in both sketches as opposed to the photograph. In doing this, the hair in the right sketch needs to be slightly fuller than it is. The wider part comes down to top of the eye. You have it above the eyebrow. That might be all that needs changing. Other than that, the right sketch is perfect.

Judy

Hi Linus. Sorry I'm a bit late with this one. I used to do these quite a lot years ago and I always had to check proportion which I did using a child's set of compass points. Your number two painting is the better but your proportion in length of face is out.
On my screen the distance between hairline and bridge of nose is 15mm. On your drawing it is 14mm, fine. But the distance between the bridge of nose and point of chin is 24mm on the photo and only 20 on your drawing. According to the real size of the work this discrepancy will be magnified.
Unfortunately photos taken such a long time ago were taken with front flash. Therefore no depth. To a degree this can be corrected if you use a photo editing suite and emphasise any highlights.
hope this is helpful.
Jack

Jack, Judy, Alan, Dale. Great observations and I agree with them all. One thing, there was a little distortion from scanning to transfer to site. I actually used the first drawing ( however I may also paint the second one as well - it's all just fun anyway). I'm just waiting for it to dry some more before posting.