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Beach Children
My only profession is painting but I don't practice it full time, so I'm posting here.This portrait was commissioned by the children's grandmother, and I went down to take the reference photos on a day when the temperatures were near 100 degrees. There was no respite even on the beach. The children were so hot and stressed that it was difficult to get much of anything. Eventually I went back on a cooler day to get better material for the little girl - a first for me. This painting presented a further challenge because both children were looking downward in the pose I used, so I needed to take faces from two other photos to have them gazing at the viewer in the painting. These other photos were shot away from the beach, in a grassy yard, so the lighting and reflections were different than the beach pictures. Thank heavens for an extensive reference library! Chris Saper's excellent book had a section on sand and sky reflections, where she discussed her painting of two siblings on a beach, which was a lifesaver.
I showed a photo of this portrait to a friend who is also an artist, and she exclaimed, "Those are my cousins!" So apparently I caught them. The client is very pleased with it but I'm having trouble delivering it because I enjoy looking at it so much. Anyone else have difficulty letting go?
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