Cooper portrait in progress 7 - Fix this or not?

With portraits it’s important to get every little nuance accurate, so that person looks like themself. But no face is perfect and sometimes there are little flaws in the reference photo that does not make them look their best. It’s an art in itself to know what to edit in a portrait. 

I once did a portrait of a woman, and her husband asked me to remove the lines on her neck that I had included. “Let’s be kind”, he said. Learning from that experience, when I did a portrait of a senior man commissioned by his wife, I smoothed out the lines and wrinkles in his face. The wife was angry. “He earned those lines!”, she said, and made me put them in. 

Sometimes there is a spot on skin or fur. Sometimes it’s a blemish and the client wants it removed. Other times they want it left in as part of what made that person unique. While drawing a portrait of a brown and white dog I thought a dark spot on his white paw was a brown spot in his coat. I asked the client about it. “That must have been a piece of dirt”, the client said, “Remove it.”

So you just never know. There was a minor detail in Cooper’s finished portrait that bothered me a little. I sent the client these three pics with captions asking if they wanted me to adjust it. 

1

I wrote:

There is a place near the corner of Cooper’s mouth where the upper lip dips down a little. Shown here by a blue arrow. I followed what I saw in the photo. Would it look better to straighten out the dark line between his upper and lower lip to take out that dip?

2

I adjusted it in Photoshop to show Brandon how it would look. 

3

I also sent these two pics side by side so Brandon could see the difference the change would make. It is a minor change, and it’s possible the little dip is characteristic of Cooper’s lips, and part of what makes him look like “him”.

Brandon responded, “First off it looks amazing! This will be a cherished piece to remember him by! The attention to detail is really incredible Kevin! Yes I think the correction looks much much better. I’d love for you to make that change. Thanks for leaving no stone unturned to get things just so.”

"Cooper"

Commissioned by Rina Carrillo as a birthday gift for her partner Brandon Hedrick.

🎨 Prismacolor pencil on “Flannel Grey” Canson Mi-Teintes paper, 11 x 14 inches.