His eyes seemed to be a darker blue than the last few kids', with a fun slant to them. I've adjusted the mouth here, but its still not quite the right angle.
I love how his skin tones are turning out so far. I started coloring the mouth but didn't put any really dark values down yet, because I'm afraid I might need to fix it a little bit more before it gets too finished.
After adjusting the shape of his mouth for the 100th time, I decided it was close enough to the photo and I finally filled in the color. Yet another red shirt, as you can see. At least it has stripes so the whole thing isn't red. Hey, my red pencil is really getting small here! I love the colors on his forehead, above his right eye. He has light skin like my kids where you can see some blue veins through it, and I was able to capture that subtly there...though you can't see it so well on this copy.
And then...our scanner died. We bought a new one which is supposed to be better. It does make nicer prints, but as for scanning artwork? I am not happy. A lot of photocopiers and scanners seem to have problems recording artwork as opposed to photos. I really think they need to design one for the public that is specifically for art. Anyway. The picture was somehow duller, like it didn't have as much light or all the colors weren't there. This one I raised the contrast in photoshop, which made it bright enough but it also blew out all the lighter colors on the face so you can't really see them:
I was looking at some of the earlier portraits in this series, and I liked the minimal background, so I did that again on this one instead of filling in the whole paper with color.
For the final scan, I didn't change anything after I scanned it, but I did cut a quarter of an inch off the top of the page so it could lay flat on the scanner bed. This at least eliminated the dark shadow on the bottom. Did I mention I am NOT happy with this scanner? I used a lot of lighter colors to give this photo a fresher feel than the last few, and while it looked great on the original, none of those subtle skin tones are showing up on this, my copy. The only one I have. GRRRRRR.
And here it is with the saturation bumped up, but its still not really accurate. Darn it.
6 comments:
Bummer about the scanner. The colors are so much richer with your old one!
I like the drawing though! He is a cutie with his dimples and smile!
I can't imagine how beautiful the original is because this is just lovely. Wish that I had your talent. There I go again, being green with envy.
Oh, that is frustrating. You still did a great job and he IS cute!
so my comment has nothing to do with the portrait and everything to do with the drawing you have in your heading? When did you do it? What inspired you to do the tree and the pumpkins in the background (I'm assuming the coming season)...it is sooooooo BEAUTIFUL!! I just love coming to your blog just to look at that!
kara- I know! And this has been my best way to preserve a copy for myself to show other people, so I'm worried about it now.
lynne- Thanks,at least you know you can write much better than I.
heidi- Isn't he?
kanaboke-I mentioned this once before in the comments but I started that at church clear last fall, then I found it in my bag earlier this month. I finished it (mostly at church) then I scanned it and colored it in photoshop. If you want to see more drawings in that style (not colored) look in my archives in September 2007, where I posted a bunch of them.
What a pain in the rear! I hate when you buy something to replace something that broke (that worked just fine) only to find out that the "new and improved" stinks. Good luck. Your portraits still look great!
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