More Progress on the Victorian Couple

As you can see, I had massive problems to contend with.  Namely tone, quality of line for the faces and those dear windows...

I think I re-did the young fella's face about 5 times.  In the end I chose Gutterman's fine sewing thread and used a combination of straight stitches and couching.  I was still not sure about his face last night, but when I examined it this morning, I was surprised at my own success, because faces are hard and faces this small are really hard - one wrong move and you create the wrong expression, the wrong age, the wrong peek into his soul...

Books about portraiture are very helpful when it comes to working out how to do faces, because at each stage of our lives our facial structure changes.  One tiny mistake can mean disaster and I find when that happens, I like to start again.  Also with this chappie, notice his mouth is open and this is a very important part of this image, he's speaking to her and she's looking up and paying him attention, not the piano for that moment...

The whole time I was doing the face, I kept remembering the first time I saw this young man's face, and the funny thing was, it was his younger face that came through the image as I sewed it.  How sweet...

So that's sorted, now onto other things...

Then the windows gave me the most incredible amount of trouble.  I realised I needed the windows because the faces were being left white and they looked so white, I wanted to balance them out.?

Well of course, these dear windows start to steal the show and then need the most almighty push back.

I thought the windows were really going to tip the balance of the whole thing at one panic-stricken point, so that's when I decided to leave them alone, while I pegged down the young lady's face.  That took 3 attempts.  More so because I forgot I was using Guttenberg for the faces and plunged into using embroidery floss which was far too dark..

Her face still looks very dark but not compared to his and certainly not after I give her hair a lot of attention.  Hair is such fun to do!

I'm pleased with her face, or rather that its so understated by comparison to the young man's.  This is the correct note I wanted to strike e.g. he's visiting her, he has something to say and she is serene in contrast.  (As they drummed into me in art school all those years ago 'less is more'...)

Here's the image with the flash turned on.

This is a worthwhile endeavour in that it highlights the tonal problems of the piece.  Her dress is far too close in tone to the sky because I spent a long time evaluating sky tonal values while her dress was covered up.  But more than that, I did want her dress to remind him of the sky and I want his hair to remind her of wood....you'll see why in the end.  Its all about linking themes...

I was aiming for that association originally, but now I need to separate those ideas somewhat.  I'm still thinking about that and hope that by the time I've finished with the curtains, wooden patina of the piano and the decorative elements of her dress, then the whole thing will be OK.

But that's a long way off and a lot of work to do before I can be sure?  To assist me, I've looked at the image with all the swatches attached and viewed it from several distances, and even upside down.  So now I forge ahead...

In so doing however, I realised the piece has gone beyond the margins of the mount that I've lined up for it?  So now I'm thinking about some kind of border to encapsulate the whole thing and most importantly to hold in the bits I'll need to chop off and bring in line with the new dimensions I have to sort out.  

I have to rest a bit today though, as I noticed my index finger has a small blister.  I was never one to get along with a thimble...

cya...