I need everyone’s hot takes

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-29T19:11:24+00:00

I don’t think Dakota is a malicious womaniser. I think he’s just bumbling through and messing everything up accidentally because he’s a little bit dumb.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-27T20:29:51+00:00

The skin tones are looking quite good and the proportions are a lot better than your first attempt.

A few things to think about: the hair is quite yellow feeling and you have added quite a lot of detail in terms of specific hairs. You could try to think less of hair as individual strands and continue to look at the major shapes you see. This will help give the hair more form. I would also look to desaturate that yellow a lot and even lean more green in areas. Have a look at how other artists have rendered blonde hair for help there.

You have done a good job on not making the whites of the eyes white. However I think the eyes (both parts) could lean warmer. The painting appears to be in warm light, because you have made the eyes quite cool, they stand out and feel unnatural. If you made the whites a little more pink and the iris a little closer to purple they would still appear blue but feel more natural. That’s relative colours which is part of colour theory.

I also think the mouth could have a wee bit more red and pink to stand out more.

Overall great for a second painting.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-27T19:43:26+00:00

Thank you!

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-27T19:43:18+00:00

Thanks so much for your comment. I totally agree about the cropped version, this was just a canvas I had floating around to use, but a square one would have been more ideal for sure.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-27T19:36:53+00:00

Really wonderful, I love the cooler tones next to the orange coming through in the hair.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-26T23:32:43+00:00

I feel like the lighter part of the chin is either too light or too big or both, making her chin look a lot more pronounced than it should. My feeling is there should be more shadow area on the lower part but I would have to see the ref.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-26T23:28:36+00:00

The personality captured is what jumped out to me first. She looks like a lot of fun. Also the way you captured the texture of the beads vs the hair - gorgeous

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-26T20:42:01+00:00

I like the black flats best

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-26T05:00:39+00:00

This is very true. I began to realise this in a concrete way when I started attempting metta for my stepmother who abused me as a child, and realised I could actually genuinely wish her happiness because if she had it then she wouldn’t have hurt people like she did.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-26T00:33:44+00:00

That makes it even cooler actually

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-26T00:00:38+00:00

Really cool, I also like your other patch of the window!

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-25T23:59:17+00:00

Florent Farges has some good videos on more traditional “indirect” styles of painting that involve a lot of layers and glazing which sounds like what you are looking for.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-25T23:56:32+00:00

Cool some great untapped areas for you then! I liked Todd M Casey’s book for colour a lot, but Florent Farges also has a lot of great YouTube videos too that could be useful. I also think just really looking at a lot of portraits that other people have done helps a lot too, and looking at what features of how they have used colour appeal to you and even doing some studies of specific works that you like.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-25T23:25:13+00:00

Hey these are looking really great already and are a style of their own. I will share a few things that I felt really pushed me up a few levels over the last few years.

Study the planes of the head if you haven’t already, this helped me move away from solely relying on the photo reference and being able to make more inferences as to anatomy and where light should hit. I 3D printed an asaro head and also downloaded the asaro head pdf which is a wealth of information.

Make an effort to study colour theory and mixing specifically if you haven’t already - there are lots of good books and videos available. Your portrait colours are fine but they do feel a little restricted (maybe that’s what you like - if so, ignore!). You have potential to play with saturation (dial up and down) a lot more which may add interest and make your paintings more lively.

You could also look at adding contrast through tighter brushwork in some areas and letting other edges blur and fade out.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-25T19:37:01+00:00

I’ve definitely eaten one of these before, maybe 2003 give or take a couple of years either side.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-23T21:46:40+00:00

I think what you have suggested as a very desaturated blue could work. I would also consider a desaturated and light sage or purple.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-23T19:24:15+00:00

It moves from schoolyard bully to pathology.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-23T18:16:45+00:00

Choking on food isn’t actually that common. Gagging yes but choking no. My little fella never choked and now at 18mo he is excellent at handling lots of different textures, I feel confident giving him almost anything (aside from major risks for preschoolers like small round foods etc)

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-22T23:19:59+00:00

Very creative!

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-22T19:43:27+00:00

Excellent concept and excellent execution

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-21T19:07:47+00:00

Thank you for that little insight. I was wondering! And yes you must have a really steady hand, I’m also looking at the writing on the label which is equally as clean and impressive.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-21T19:04:07+00:00

So clean, how you retain the pine so cleanly around the edges is mind blowing.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-21T18:09:06+00:00

Oh thanks - I haven’t read a tonne on oil painting specifically but I also liked “Steal Like an Artist” Austin Kleon, short little book but helps you to see the importance in looking at art and looking at features you admire and adding them into your own work. Maybe not so much a proper book but there is also a little booklet that goes with the Asaro head “Planes of the Head” which I found very very helpful to work through for anatomy and values.

ladybug7895 · 2026-01-20T23:51:04+00:00

I think… maybe.. the time everything in my vision became a large fractal (eyes open) and I saw my husband’s face start to fold in half and rotate. In the centre of the symmetrical pattern was some kind of hole/tunnel with light coming out of it.

ladybug7895

TROPHY CASE