# Difficult portrait expression



## Coccinelle (Apr 13, 2016)

I am painting a little girl's portrait and I am struggling really hard with her facial expression. The portrait still need a lot of work i know but i was hoping someone could help me out with this expression.. This is my work so far, i am quite dissatisfied with it. But could someone tell me what I am doing so wrong?


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## abt2k15 (Jan 9, 2016)

i think you still captured the expression decently. one thing i notice ( viewers point of view ) left cheeck feels like its just a "chubby cheek" while on ref
the face isnt "chubby" - its just the cheek thats raised for the smirk. i made a quick chop to illustrate what i mean.
the red lines on the top left is the cheek plane i see with your painting - the green lines show the forms i see on the reference.

below the one with the red lines i made another layer and added some lights and darks to make it look more like the form i see in ref.

the second image is the same thing but with greyscales. you can see where the values are different from the reference and you
can better see what i changed. i hope it helps and best of luck


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## just (Mar 3, 2015)

2k15 pointed out clearly some important elements but fixing them alone won't get it right. You have no depth to the eyes, very little to the mouth and incomplete to the nose. To fix the problem with the debth remove the monotone from the eyes and mouth, add more details lines around the features. Also, the hair over her right eye.


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## Coccinelle (Apr 13, 2016)

Thanks a lot for taking on your time to help! I am afraid this is my first child portrait and it's really giving me a hard time. Besides whenever i add the lines and shadows around the eyes, the little girl starts to look old. I haven't worked properly yet with the eyes and nose, i am trying to get at least the cheeks and mouth right. Thanks again for the valuable advices..


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## Susan Mulno (Apr 13, 2015)

Coccinelle said:


> Thanks a lot for taking on your time to help! I am afraid this is my first child portrait and it's really giving me a hard time. Besides whenever i add the lines and shadows around the eyes, the little girl starts to look old. I haven't worked properly yet with the eyes and nose, i am trying to get at least the cheeks and mouth right. Thanks again for the valuable advices..


If you have not already done, you may want to check out Just's profile. He is amazing at portraits and studying his techniques (and other's) may help.


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