Portrait Of A Little Boy: Grant

After painting Adele's portrait, Grant's was a completely different palette of colors. His beautiful blue eyes and golden hair complimented his blue shirt. As I did with Adele's painting, Grant's background was a nod toward the season he was born in. Autumn. Grant is a lively two year old who is always on the go. I wanted this portrait to portray his energy and enthusiasm for life.

Grant
14 x 11", Oil on canvas
Rita Salazar Dickerson (c) 2014

 Stages 1 and 2: Drawing and blocking in. After loosely painting in Grant's features with a thin wash of burnt umber mixed with mineral spirits, I began blocking in the eyes and then the face, adding hints of color as I went.

Stage 3: Completing the face and hair. After his head was completed I blocked in Grant's hands. In this initial stage, my focus was on getting the proportions accurate. When working from reference photos it is important to remember that the camera lens will exaggerate and disproportion limbs that are close and far away.

Stage 4: Painting Grant's hands. I painted just a small portion of the shirt to make sure I had the color correct next to his skin and then used that same blue in the highlights.

Stage 5: Painting the shirt. When painting a shirt with a pattern such as this, my goal is to give just enough information to portray that it is a striped shirt without making it too busy and distracting.

Stage 6: Painting the background. Though I wanted the background to hint of autumn, I didn't want it to distract from Grant. I had background reference photos to pick and choose from and so I chose just a few of these simple, tall grasses painted softly into the golds and browns.