1 Step Forward, 2 Steps Back

Finished! Or so I thought.....
reworking

opening eyes and continuing to contour her face, find highlights

Sigh. I promise I will have other art soon to show you besides my daughter's portrait. I thought I was done. Twice, actually. But no. Maybe you remember when I began this portrait I had no end point in mind. I was going to paint and let it evolve. I was debating at one point whether the style should be more 'expressive' or 'realistic'. At my last stopping point I knew I went beyond 'expressive' leaning toward realistic but not there yet either so I was in an inbetween place. I just couldn't leave it where it was at..... I wanted more but I was working with a very poor reference.... why do I do that to myself??? LOL! Sometimes with commissions you don't have much to work with but I do have lots of photos of my daughter. Still but I choice this one- a black and white newspaper clipping that is crinkled and laminated that gave me the general idea but not much else to work with. As luck would have it I came upon a portrait, not of my daughter but another profile portrait with similar lighting and I decided to use that as a guide to take this painting further. So what you'll see now is the second 'finished' stage, then 2 steps back. I blocked out areas again and am working on molding the face to get correct contours and highlights. I also decided to open her eyes. I am now firmly headed toward realistic, although it may not look like that yet-- hopefully it will!

To counter balance all this realism (or what I hope will be realism) I will be doing a slightly abstract, colorful horse here in the next few days to blow off some steam. Reality is fine but imagination is fun so I will let myself lt loose on another horse painting soon. :) For now I will bring you up to date on my daughter's 'I Made a Wish...." portrait. I am bringing more light on to her face, opening her eyes and reworking the profile slightly.

To see more portraits, human, equine and pet go to http://www.suesteiner.com

Thanks for stopping by!