It's one part inspiration, one part skill, and one part mystery. There's also tenacity (many extraordinarily talented people simply don't make anything.)
But the other day a friend of mine said to me, "I don't know how you do it: the way you catch the expression in people's eyes... It's just...amazing!"
It was so sweet! And, of course, made me feel great. But I thought I'd share with all of you some of my "process." These photos are taken of a custom portrait I did of my oldest daughter. She has a great sense of humor, and so I took the first photo of the painting to text to her (she goes to college in CA), because it looked a little... well... funny! But then I decided to document the process. Here goes!
The photo I used as a reference:
And this is the first photo I took to send to her to make her laugh (I was tempted to tell her this was the finished product!):
As you can see, I've started with some undertones in her skin.
Here I've added undertones in her hair -- which is really curly:
This next one is a pretty big jump -- I've filled in her shirt, and more of her skin and hair:
She loves makeup, so I had to add more to the eyes:
But she is an olive-skinned, dark-haired beauty, so I darkened up her eyebrows and hair a bit:
And when it was all dry, it looked like this:
I can paint your portrait (or someone you love) any time. Just come to my etsy store for all the details. I'll have another set of photos showing my process again later this week. Thanks for looking!
