Latest Commission

Have not been able to show this as it was a joint birthday gift for the grandparents of these 2 gorgeous children. I had several photos to choose from and for me this composition was the best, not only because it was a really good photo of them but more importantly from an artist's point of view, only one lot of teeth!!

But for future reference need to make sure I get the mouths done first as I had great difficulty with the little girl's mouth... I worried it to death, used my magic sponge and even tried some Daniel Smith Watercolour ground, but knew fairly early on that is was all a waste of time and I would have to do the whole thing again if I was going to ever be happy, but this time working on the mouth sooner rather than later!!

When I paint a portrait I work around the whole thing, I  know a lot of artists work on one area at a time but I like to move around so that everywhere has a chance to dry. I used a very limited palette

UB
Burnt Sienna
Raw Sienna
Alizarin Crimson
Touch of Cob Blue

Skin tones need the three primaries and as usual I find limiting the palette makes for a good harmonious balance of colour. I think I have kept this fresh and bright and am quite happy with it.

Some of you may remember from a previous post about how tricky commissions can be and this was commissioned by a friend of the recipients, and although I knew what style the friend would like I didn't know about the recipients so have played safe with this one concentrating on the likeness and choosing fairly conservative colours.  It is certainly my aim to work more on portraits, concentrating on tone not colour and working more with shape in an effort to keep a loose spontaneity. When you are painting a portrait it is easy to be caught up in trying so hard to achieve a likeness, you lose the way you paint so I am going to work more on them in the future.... have another to be done fairly soon, so not sure I will be able to practice on that!!