Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes, pastel on aqua colored paper. Another portrait of pretty little Sophia, the first one I did of her, from a photo I took.  In the original photo her dad's hairy knee was where the rabbit is here.  I photoshopped the knee out, and fabricated the rabbit, drawing it in PS pixel by pixel, to arrive at finished composition for painting.    I sketched her in pencil first until I had a good likeness, then transferred to the colored paper and started in with pastels.  I moved around or eliminated some of the room details, changing the perspective to suit me.  The rug it turns out is black where I have blue but pushing a point and shoot camera photo in not strong light the colors don't end up right.

I am pretty happy with the results.  The likeness is good but not perfect but I wanted to stop once the eyes looked so perfect - the glistening - and the innoscence and insecurity of her pose.  I did not want to overwork it and mess it up.  I do owe some thanks to the phenomonal artist Jon Houghton.  I showed him the picture as we stood in the street next to my car and he gave me some good tips - some edges I had not fuzzed out enough, and then some shirt highlights where he said it looks better to stroke across the fold instead of with it.  I appreciate that he was willing (and able) to give some right-on comments like that. 

This won Best of Show in the Strawbridge Art League 2010 Vision show.