Update on Savannah's portrait

This portrait of Savannah is coming along pretty well now and you can see the details in the hat. Her face is nearly done, but I see some changes that need to be made. Nothing is harder for an artist than capturing the exact likeness and I could be tweaking this for weeks, but there are more paintings to do in the meantime.

Savannah in her Party Hat

Savannah in her Party Hat is in progress now---I have about 6 hours in so far and it's starting to come together. The original photo included my grandniece Savannah from the waist up, a lovely photo, but for this portrait I decided I wanted to focus on her face and cropped the photo as shown. After making that composition decision, I was very uneasy about it, even after sketching it on the canvas. In fact, I put off starting the painting for a week, just mulling it over. I don't like to start a painting feeling that kind of uncertainty about the composition. However, I decided that rather than scrapping it and going back to the half-figure photo, I would go ahead and do an under painting. As soon as the painting was washed in, I knew it would work.

The background is subtle and muted. The dress and hat pop with color and the expression on Savannah's face is what made me want to paint this one. For background on this one, several months ago I had a formal, dress-up tea party for my friends, niece and grandnieces (3!). As part of those festivities, we had a variety of hats, ribbons and fresh flowers so everyone could choose and decorate their own hat for the party. Each of the girls posed for pictures in their hats and I have in mind that a series of paintings is in order. This is the first in the "Girls in Hats" series.

In coming back to this painting, you will notice the shadows on the girl's face under the hat are not as dark as in the original photo. That's deliberate as I wanted to show more details in the eyes and upper face with color rather than contrast. My favorite art teacher Chris DiDomizio would always ask, "What is this painting about?" So this painting is not about contrast, about deep and light values, but rather it's about color and a lighter mood. After all, it's a party!

So, in the original photo, the contrast between light and dark was so great that you couldn't even see the shades of color or reflective light in her eyes. In the painting, that's visible. I also took the liberty of filling in a tooth that just exists as a budding tooth. After all, that tooth will grown in and better to have a complete set of teeth for posterity. I mean seriously, isn't that what we all want?

Another 4 hours and it will probably be done. I need to add more green to her face--yes, that's what makes flesh tones real. Her arms and hands need more color and definition. Her hair needs to be filled in, smoothed out and at the very end, I'll add some silken strands of hair floating at the edges. The hat will need more details, too, and I have no idea how I'm going to loosely replicate the weaving of the hat. After all, I don't want to spend too much time on details that draw the eye away from her face. I'll add more dimension to the flowers in the hat, too, with lights and darks, keeping the details very loose.

Sweet Savannah.