[Joan Breckwoldt]

Thank you Leslie and Michele for your replies. How wonderful to have two such different ways of doing the same thing. That seems to be the good and the bad thing about portraiture, there aren't many rules! Sometimes that's a good thing, but when I come to a technical problem in the actualy painting, I sometimes wish there was a handbook telling me how to approach a particular problem.

I guess I'll just have to wing it as I go along until I figure out what works best for me. I can always ask the mom to sit in the other room so I (or the model) can concentrate, or have a more serious pose, etc.

Thanks for all the input!

Joan