It's been a while that I had time to show how my paintings progress from a simple sketch to the final piece. After the initial sketch layers of colors are applied and continue to build up until the final result and hopefully, the desired likeness is achieved. Since details get lost when the image is made smaller I will show detail shots below.
When looking into the eyes of someone, you often see a certain glimmer. I try to achieve this by choosing colors that have a high contrast. Here I have used very light blues against browns and even some muted pinks.
The lip area is very fleshy and unless and therefore lines do not exist.It is rather a merging or feathering of two different tones into each other that creates the illusion of these fleshy lips. By adding highlights and again extreme value differences of very light versus very dark, the lips seem to protrude.
Here is a close-up of the hair. The hair alternates between broad and finer impasto strokes to create the illusion of fine hair that is a bit tousled.
The full transformation is best seen when the original reference photo is placed side by side with the painting. I decided to keep the raincoat much looser and more muted since red is such an attention getter. By doing so I made sure that the face seems to come to the foreground and gets all the attention it deserves.
And finally the finished painting .... If you like to order a similar portrait of a little girl you know, just click on the drop-down menu for pricing and order instructions.
