Before I tackled this little watercolour portrait, I had drawn a larger picture of one of my other children, but because it was backlit and with delicate lighting and a very particular mood, I was still too scared to try painting it. I felt satisfied with the things I'd learned from the first portrait and thought I must try to do a face, but I wasn't ready to do that one just yet. So to keep my momentum, I found this cute picture of another son from a few years ago. I don't normally like "photo faces" in portraits because of the obvious and unnatural posing, but this so perfectly captured his personality that I thought if I could pull off the squashy-face grin, I'd be really pleased. Nothing like a challenge for your first face.
So here is the series of progress photos. The first was taken just for fun with my iphone and posted for friends/family on Facebook, and the second I took to post to the local art group for their advice as to whether I should darken the background. Opinions were mixed, but I decided to go ahead and do it. The last photo is of the finished painting.
My favourite part of this whole painting is the shoes. Funnily enough, it's also the favourite part for the subject. He loved those shiny silver sport shoes. What a privilege to be able to work at bringing back precious memories for my little ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment