Cowboy painting in the style of Clint Eastwood

[Jonner]

This is a painting I'm doing as a birthday present for a friend. I wanted to make it in the style of the Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone movie posters with the face of my friend on it.

I wanted to keep it loose and gestural, but I'd like to make sure that everything is clearly stated.

I'd also like to know whether the background reads well.

If there are any other criticisms I'd be happy to hear them as well.

(I've also attached the photo reference that I'm using of my friend)

[Kresh]

Take a look at some of these, if you have any films study the colors and facial features. And remember more squinty eyes

http://images.art.com/images/PRODUCTS/large/10126000/10126160.jpg
http://n3wb.com/boolean/DeliciousExported/images/33
http://artfiles.art.com/images/-/The-Good-the-Bad-and-the-Ugly-Poster-C10135848.jpeg
http://inventorspot.com/files/images/good,-bad-ugly.jpg
http://www.whatdvd.net/WhatDVD-Graphics/main/295.jpg

[Seedling]

This is a great present.

The goatee actually isn’t reading clearly – it looks a bit like a shadow under his chin. The skin color is also making him look Hispanic, which he doesn’t look in the photo.

Notice how his face is lit from below in the photo? That might be another good thing to try in the portrait. That could be light reflected up from the ground.

Lastly, those hands are looking pretty good. Since they are major story-tellers in this image, cleaning up the lines there could make them even better.

[Justin.]

Seedling has a good point about the light, if you look at alot of pics of people in middle of a flat piece of land, especially something bright like sand, you will see they have alot of light reflected from below.