Portrait Of A Little Boy II, Part 2

Spring is generally a busy time of year for me. I have been working on commissioned paintings that clients will be giving as special gifts; I will share some of them with you later. In the midst of it all I have this little boy at the easel, waiting to be painted.

Portrait Of A Little Boy II

Stage 2: Painting the face. At this stage my main goal was to place his features as accurately as possible knowing full well there will be adjustments (color, edges, values) before the painting is completed. 

Portrait Of A Little Boy, II

Portrait Of A Little Boy, II

 Stage 1:Painting in the figure freehand with a thin wash of Transparent Oxide Red, I loosely laid down my guidelines for the painting. The entire piece is on a 24 x 18" canvas, (much larger than the first portrait of him which was an 11 x 14") and it will include his entire body. I welcome the opportunity to paint the same person twice; it happens much more often when it is a portrait of a child. Sometimes one portrait is not enough when grandparents are involved and want one of their own! 

Now that I am at this stage, I can hardly wait to start progressing. Since I have already painted him once in this same light, a lot of the problems as far as color have already been solved. It will just be a matter of following my notes on color combinations of paint and values to work my plan.

Portrait Of A Little Boy, Part 6

Portrait Of A Little Boy
14 x 11", Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson

Session 6: Painting the shirt. I like his original shirt which is a plaid but decided to simplify the pattern quite a bit to keep it from being a distraction to the rest of the composition. The stripes are still interesting and the blue color enhances his eyes.

Its time to let this painting rest for a couple of weeks and move on to the next one. I will be making adjustments after I can look at it again with fresh eyes. This little guy is so enjoyable to paint!

Portrait Of A Little Boy, Part 5

Stage 5: The Background. Now that the background shapes and colors are in I am going to concentrate on his shirt as well as go over the face a bit to make some minor adjustments. Once that is done, I will rework this background again if necessary. Already, as I am looking at this blog post I see things I want to  change.

Portrait Of A Little Boy, Part 4

Stage 4: Ears and hair. Adding light to his hair was the reward at the end of my day.

Portrait Of A Little Boy, Part 3

Stage 3: The mouth, face and neck.  

Portrait Of A Little Boy, Part 2

Stage 3: The nose and face. Even though neither the nose or face is complete, it felt good to get some colors mixed and begin figuring out how I want to apply them.