Portrait Of A Little Girl: "Clio" Stage 4

I like traditions. A tradition I started with my art, is to paint a portrait of each grandchild when she (or he) turns two. It is my gift and hopefully it will be something for them to enjoy, even at the age of two.

It's fun when I have the opportunity to add something within the subject matter of the painting that holds significance or special meaning for the child. In this case it is the dress. This hand crocheted dress was created by Clio's great grandmother, Donna Dickerson. Donna is an artist with her crocheting needles.

 Stage 4: Painting the dress. Having never painted a crocheted dress before, I decided to just follow my instincts. I started with the medium value of pink and added the lighter pink on the shoulders.

I then came in with the lighter shade of pink and began to brush in a light, loose pattern of the crocheted dress.

At this point I worked in the darker values of pinks and blues to give it depth and dimension. I then went over it again with lighter values using my palette knife. The palette knife helped create texture.

Time to let it rest. Tomorrow I will paint her arms and hands.