Another Portrait Finished

We were eating at the café at the Getty Villa Museum, Malibu California. There was a noisy crowd at a table across the patio.

I took a series of photographs of the group, because they were interesting and animated. Upon examining the images later, I liked particularly this woman's face.

The painting I developed is quite a bit different. Her coloring and clothing has been changed.

I named her Jan. But once again, I never knew her real name.

As you may see, I made a layout change here from my usual portraits. I placed the face to the right of the canvas, instead of in the center. She gives me a soft feeling with her glance, and I felt the space in this layout conveys that softness to the viewer.

She has this "tooth" smile. In real life the teeth were not quite aligned at the bottom. When submitting the nearly finished painting to my critique group, they felt the irregularity attracted too much attention. So I "filed" down her teeth and painted them neatly in a row.

Painting teeth are difficult. Getting just the right color is hard. Again, too white brings the viewer's eye to them too quickly. Too much of any other color may make the face dour.

One of my critique group is a retired dentist. His feedback has taught me a lot.