Heather portrait…almost finished!

Heather...18 h x 24 w...oil on canvas/hardboard panel

You may remember that my last post of the Heather portrait-in-progress revealed my frustrations with several aspects of the painting. (If you don’t remember, scroll down this blog page.)  

I solicited advice from Heather’s fan club and from two other artist/painters.  Almost everyone agreed that the background colors of the other version were too bright.  Howard B. pointed out that I had made her body too big for her head.  John W. of Wales suggested I reduce the size of the deck.  Several people said the shoes were “hideous”. 

I agreed with all those suggestions, so I struggled with those “hideous” shoes, and the background colors and I kept painting the deck smaller and smaller.

But it was while I was painting Heather’s beautiful eyes that it struck me — why show the deck or her shoes at all???  The improtant part of this painting is not her dress or shoes or even her legs…it is her lovely doll-like face.  Duh!

So, I cut off all the extraneous stuff and painted her dress down over her knees.

So what’s with that hair bow, you ask?  Well, that is a remnant of all my machinations with those !#$%* hot pink shoes.  I felt I needed an element in the composition to balance the big pink clod-hoppers, so I added the bow.  Now it sticks out like a beacon.  I’m going to paint a white rose over it.

PLEASE, kind readers, tell me what you think.  Use the comment form or send me an email –  jandi(at)jandismall(dot)com