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Monday, September 13, 2010

Beach Babies~commission

I wanted these children to relate more to each other within the scene, possibly by connecting their shadows or their footprints in the sand. I drew a rough sketch of the background on a sketch pad, then each child separately on small bits of tracing paper so I could move them around and try different placements. It was a little like playing paper dolls. By bringing the boy closer to his sister and lowering his position his left hand 'fit' into her right hand perfectly. Issue solved.

The reference photo

I've received a commission to paint this adorable scene of two siblings, a sister(age 3) and her brother(age 14 months) enjoying a day at the beach. Even though I've only painted one child(a portrait) and I've never painted a beach scene, how could I resist this? I have until Christmas to complete this commission so I plan to take my time and hopefully do these babies justice.

10 comments:

Vera Dennen said...

Piece of cake Billie, no faces! Enjoy the beautiful sumjects.

Billie Crain said...

That's the first thing I noticed...no faces!...thank God.;)

Making A Mark said...

Lots of lovely backlighting though! :)

Jeanette Jobson said...

This will be a breeze for you. Don't overthink it, just slap on some paint and go for it.

Nick said...

Looks like it was the right thing to do, nice how the hands worked out.
I saw the other post about size, I stick to my guns on that. Makes sense to me that there has to be a perfect size for a given picture - all the more reason to buy your paper in rolls so you're not limited by what the manufacturers do.

Billie Crain said...

I agree..wonderful play of light in this photo, Katherine. That really stuck me.

Billie Crain said...

I may have to go back to my original ways and just let intuition take over, Jeanette. I believe the subject matter calls for that approach.

Billie Crain said...

It's making sense to me too, Nick. I get it now. I can't swing the cost of a roll right now, tho.

Jaime Baiao said...

Good work.
Congrstulations!

Billie Crain said...

Thank you, Jaime!