"Grandma's Mirror" - In progress 5

Every painting has what I call a "punchline". In this one it's Maddie's face in his grandma's mirror. 

When I photographed Maddie playing with Grandma's mirror, he was turning it every which way.... and just for a split second he turned it past the spot where his eyes met mine in the mirror.... and his face lit up.

The talent of a truly skilled portrait artist is to capture the soul and essence of the person, not just their likeness. My goal with this painting was to capture the sparkling essence of Maddie. 

"Grandma's Mirror" - In progress 4

All my work is done with Prismacolor pencils. Maddie's skin and the mirror are tightly rendered; as I move farther away from those important areas I make the strokes looser, more gestural. The blue and green of the clothing gives a cool balance to the warmth of Maddie's skin.

"Grandma's Mirror" - In progress 3

Maddie's hands are added. 

I love all the colors - peach, pink, rust, lavender, blue - that can be seen in skin.

"Grandma's Mirror" - In progress 2

The next part of the painting I worked on was Maddie's face. I usually focus on the face first, that is the critical part of a painting, and if I'm not happy with that, there's no point in continuing. (That rarely happens, I'm happy to say.)

I love Maddie's profile! (scroll down for closeup) Technically this will be a "double portrait" because a frontal view of his face will also be reflected in the mirror. The most important thing I want to capture is that mischievous Maddie twinkle in his eyes.

"Grandma's Mirror" - In progress 1

Maddie was playing with his Grandma's mirror. I tried to get him to turn the mirror to that precise spot where I could see his little face in the mirror. He was vigorously turning it every which way. Just for a split second he turned it so his eyes met mine in the reflection - his face lit up - and I got the shot. (I have a really fast shutter-finger after 36 years experience with a camera: I started at age 16 with pro-level equipment - thank you forever, Dad.) 

The sketching process was completed (below), working on a charcoal-grey ground, 20 x 26 inches. Today the first thing I draw is Grandma's hand-painted wooden mirror. (scroll down)

"Grandma's Mirror"

Recently I photographed the grandchildren of Anne O'Dell, a brother and sister, Paige (age 18) and Maddox (age 3). Paige had graciously agreed to pose for a series of paintings. I got some very nice reference material of Paige to work from. Maddie was running around while we were shooting, so I included him in many of the shots. 

In the following days I studied my photography of Paige, choosing the photos that inspired me to paint, and beginning the sketching and layout processes. 

Oddly enough, the first image that inspired me to start on a painting, is one of Maddie.... (stay tuned, more soon)