My very first portrait pattern

[savethebeer]

Here is my very first pattern. It is my friend Tricia. I would like constructive critisism. {I did put 'lots of' in front of the word constructive and then thought that might tempt faith ;-)]

I need to work on her hair, definitely not happy with this. Any suggestions re her hair gratefully recieved

I did have big problems with both 'ctrl Z' and 'undo history' as this caused a change of highlighted layer meaning it kept jumping to a different layer and all the little strokes or clicks that I tried to make on the pattern layer that I was looking at was actually happening unseen on a different layer, which meant that by the time I noticed it was too late to undo the things I had done on the unseen layer.

   

Bob

[new2woodwrk]

I have no suggestions or criticisms (other than her left cheek seems odd or missing - her left, picture right)

But I think it's a fantastic first try - good for you and well done!

[Dan]

Outstanding creation Bob! Great job on the eyes and lip. Just the right amount of detail. 

[amazingkevin]

Bob! You brought out all her feminity!Excellent work!

[savethebeer]

Thanks Guys. I'm about to start her all over again just for the practice. Yesterday I was getting tired at the amount of time just doing her hair so I just posted it. I never went as far as checking for islands etc and that's why I never noticed her missing left cheek.

For relaxation I spent an hour looking at facebook photos last night evaluating photos of friends just to see if they would make good patterns, and from now on I'm going to look more closely at the villagers previous  postings of portraits just to find the good and the bad points.

Bob

[heppnerguy]

It looks just like her.. I too am trying to learn to do portraits and the hair is one that has me baffled also. MIne come out the same way yours did so I understand what  you are talking about. I think this is a really good first portrait pattern. I guess both of will learn by keeping on keeping on

Dick

heppnerguy

[savethebeer]

I'm back in the shop at long last after Dads illness.

I did this last night in BB and then coated it in BLO. Its 8in by 8in. This is actually the very first time I've definitely used Baltic Birch (or Russian Birch as it seems to be known in Ireland) because I gathered wood from every source I could when I started 3 years ago, so I've been using unknown wood up till now.

I added in her left cheek and I cut her hair strands free hand.  It was actually easier to cut than to draw the strands. I was keeping a very close eye to make sure I did not cut through any adjoining strands. The wood around her hair is very fragile as I've cut so much away even though its very thin kerfs.

Bob

 

[savethebeer]

Here is the finished product. I didn't need to post this photo at all. Its just my way of letting you know that I found out how to resize photos,  the answer is found in Google. My first effort above went from 5.7MB to about 15MB (because of something to do with not reading instructions). Now this particular effort went from 5.7MB to 1 MB.

[The backer is an old black silk shirt]

[JustLarry]

Bob,

That turned out very, very well.

Larry

[dgman]

Way to go Bob, looks great!

[Dave Monk]

Awesome job!

[Scrappile]

Wish I could do a pattern that good.

[RabidAlien]

Awesome!!