Samuel turned 1 year old, and his mama wanted to remember those chubby cute moments of her little boy. Portraits are down right hard, and this one seemed to be one of the harder ones I painted. Three reasons:
1- Sweaters are hard to paint! Nobody choose the photo with the sweater for photo reference! I'm just kidding. I thought the sweater turned out alright.
2- If it's a chubby little person, I have to paint him chubby but not TOO chubby to where people look and say "that kid is fat!" Samuel has cheeks that are absolute chub city, and you can't help yourself but squeeze them! This painting is actually my second attempt - The first time I penciled his face so wide it looked too fat. And we don't want fat, we want the chubs! I ripped it up and started over. This second attempt isn't so bad now.
3- Samuel is smiling, but he's only half smiling. In one stroke I could change a frown to a smile, so I had to paint carefully. His mouth needed to register as a smile and not a somber look.
This whole painting was a new adventure. I threw a lot of salt into his background to give a nice textured look. Also Samuel seems to pull off young and old at the same time - his mother combed his hair back and he's looking off into the distance. It's definitely different. Thoughts anyone?
-Laura
2 comments:
Laura, I love it! His mother must be delighted. I don't even know him yet I want to squish those adorable cheeks and I see his personality in your portrait. You are very talented.
Interesting black watercolor pieces. Amazing choice.
Here is a thought a vignetted back ground that is flat and smooth. It will keep the background in the background. Some times with portrait it is easy to have the background come forward with to much texture. The background there by pulls forward equal in importance to the portrait.
Fun to see your work
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