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I would just like to get some feedback about how you perceive this woman looking back at you. What is your sense of her?
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This is the third in the series of La Calavera Catrina portraits I made at last fall’s La Dia de los Muertos celebration. This one is quite straight forward but, personally, I love it. There is a kindness and softness in her eyes that I find open and inviting. And, of course, there are the roses which perfectly frame her face. I am quite proud of the fact that even in the midst of the chaos and rush of doing this kind of street portrait, I had the awareness to orient her so as to get the nice catch light in her eyes. I also like the way the black paint around her eyes creates a kind of optical illusion making it seem as though she is looking out from behind a mask rather than having had it painted on her face.
She has some nice makeup, Kerry, but I’m not getting much of a personality coming through like I did on the first two you posted. That’s probably due to the neutral expression and head-on pose you had to work with on this one. The other two came across as having a lot of fun with this, but I’m not sensing that in this one.
Kerry, I missed the first two that Dennis mentioned, but I really like this one. (I’ll go back and have a look.)
The girl has those sort of dark, fathomless eyes that look right through you. You’ve captured that! Love the make-up and roses. I don’t mind the front on look at all. I think she is mesmerising.
Kerry, this is cool, and I like it a lot, but the first two showed some great personality lacking here, particularly Catrina 2. Still, a fine portrait here.
Hi Kerry
My sense is that this woman is looking deeply at me. She is calm and grounded and at peace. I feel like she is a shaman (or would that be shawoman ?), a spiritual native who sees my spirit.
Thanks for posting.
Another one I didn’t get to right away, but well worth coming back to catch up. I prefer the “faming” here, with fewer distractions from the mask and eyes. She does have a neutral expression which is interesting in comparison to the lovely mask, which does indeed look very 3D. But a deeper look into the eyes is certainly worthwhile. There is a quiet intensity to the look that is very appealing. An absolutely excellent portrait!!!
