On my easel as I travel this week has been an adorable trio. I went to photograph these children for their portrait and they were a delight! Full of smiles and giggles. Hope you enjoy my progress here along with some of my travel pics. I have been close to the Belgium border this week in more rural areas of Germany. The little towns here are very picturesque!
The finished portrait 12″x18″ soft pastel on velour.
My photo reference for the portrait. I took many photos but these were the choice of my clients. I used the other photos to help me piece together this composition including Charlie’s hand which came from one of the other photos. It took a while to cut and paste the photos in Photoshop to come up with an arrangement that worked.
My sketch transferred onto the velour and I’m ready to start the children. I’m leaving the background of this very neutral to allow the children to really stand out. Just a gentle gradient from left to right to accentuate the shadow side of their faces.
A start made on Charlie. Working skintones on velour is all about building up fine layers and blending gently.
Some features starting to take shape.
I love painting stripey clothing as it gives a real sense of form. I use a midtone blue for the stripes and then add the darker areas and highlights where needed.
The white is saved for the brightest areas on the top where the light is hitting. The white stripes on the right shadow side are mostly shades of light blue.
Working those denim dungarees and I love the little pooch on his front. A simple little shape but I think he really adds to the overall portrait.
Almost there with the first child and I’ll leave the rest of his other arm until I have the clothing behind it done as I want my edges to sit nicely on top.
We have been staying near a beautiful animal park in Alsdorf this week while we get some work done on our van. It gave me plenty of opportunity to go and photograph some more unusual animals and I hope to use some of the reference I got for future paintings. Always on the lookout for another painting idea!
A few of my favourite pictures from the week. The owl and peacock have caught my eye in particular!
Onto the sweet girl in the middle. Starting by blocking in some of the darker tones.
The highlights on the sunlit side really make the face start to take shape.
After much tweaking at the face I work the hair a little more.
Onto her dungarees. Love the style in this portrait as all the children’s clothes will work so nicely together. Always a good idea when possible to think about the clothing in a portrait. The colours will affect the overall piece so much!
Working Charlie’s arm now that the dungarees are in behind. Using my lovely Unison sticks and you can see some of the colours I have out in my tray.
Brocci and I taking in the view in Baesweiler, Germany. Still waiting on parts for the van so we make good use of the time to explore the surrounding countryside. That’s Baesweiler behind me. I thought we’d never get outa that town as nice as it was! Glad to be back on the move now, van sorted!
Andrew on top of the world in Baesweiler. Stunning 360 views for hundreds of miles!
On to cute face number three
She has such a sweet giggle!
Starting to think about hair colour. I always put down stronger colours first as these will shine through my later layers.
We arrived in a small town called Gemünd which is on the edge of Eifel National Park. The drive here felt like a descent into the jungle as we drove down steep valleys covered in trees and over winding rivers.
The town itself it full of interesting buildings and built in a valley surrounded by trees.
Back to work and I’m on the home stretch now!
Last little set of dungarees and I’ll be done!
A little close up from the finished portrait.
Hope you enjoyed my progress and travel photos! Be sure to check back soon for more new work. My framer has received a couple of paintings I posted back to Northern Ireland and they’re currently being framed as surprise presents. Look forward to sharing those with you soon 🙂
I enjoyed watching as I’m new to velour. Did one… a tiger but Want to do more , esp.lly portraits , so your work was useful. Would love to watch more of your work.
Thanks Iris, I love using velour especially for animals but it works lovely for skintones too. If you look in the categories on my blog click on ‘People’ to see many more examples of my people portraits on velour. Glad you find it useful! I also have a Youtube channel where I have videos showing my work speeded up. I am currently working on a series of real time tutorials but so far have only got animal ones up. Subscribe to my channel for future videos though as I’m working on them at the moment. Thanks for visiting the blog!