Portrait Of A Little Boy II, Part 5

Stage 5: Painting his arms and hands. Although they are not finished, I am now at a resting point with his little arms and hands. I love the fact that he is playing with his round pink toes; tomorrow I will finish painting them!
Each brush stroke brings me closer. Even though there is still so much to do, I am beginning to get a good sense for where this painting is going.

Portrait Of A Little Boy II, Part 4

Stage 4:  Painting his shirt, once again, was almost as challenging as the first time(with the 11 x 14"). Giving enough detail but not too much was my first goal. The variations of the stripes and edges was my second. This is a good stopping point for me; I will make more adjustments as the painting progresses. Tomorrow I will work on his arms and hands.

Portrait Of A Little Boy, II: Part 3

Stage 3: Painting the hair. Though I will go back in and work on his hair more, I think I have the values and shape close to what I want. The impasto technique used on his highlights creates texture and dimension.

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.