Children's portraits from life

Christy Talbott · 07-31-2008, 08:44 AM

I'd like to begin to do my commissioned portraits of children, from life.... *gulp*.... It scares me just to write that, but I do think that's the direction I'd like to take. I'd love to know who here does their children's portraits from life and any advice they might have for me. Thank you so much in advance!

Linda Brandon · 07-31-2008, 09:43 AM

Christy, I'm really happy to hear that you're going to do this - I think you will be very good at it since you seem to have an instinctive feel for the emotional qualities that are distinctive in children and seem to fossilize as we age.

I teach a course in this and so I have a lot of advice which seems to me is scattered around this Forum hither and yon. (There are many other good artists on this site who also paint children from life and I steal ideas from them whenever I can.

) The main idea is to do a LOT of work from life before you start charging for them and get used to the idea that a lot of studies will go in the rubbish. You have to get used to the idea that you are working on moving targets. Personally, I alternate reading "fine art" books with books on animation and cartooning since I think that there are a lot of concepts which cross-pollinate.

As far as the business side is concerned, I now have different catagories of portraits on my website and I am offering a discount to clients who come for life sittings in my studio. I've done two of these in the past few months (one is still ongoing, he comes by every five weeks or so) and it is working out very well for me. As soon as I figure out how to do this while travelling on the road (multiple sittings are the issue) I'll offer this as well.

Meanwhile, I'd advise anybody that the first step should be to get yourself in front of lots of children and draw until you are rock-solid in your knowledge about children's head porportions.

Michael Georges · 07-31-2008, 10:23 AM

Wow Christie, good for you for thinking down this track!

Linda and others will have much better advice than I can give, but I do think you should do something like Linda has done and set portraits up in categories maybe with discounts or incentives for life settings.

You are gonna get those kids that just won't sit still even for 5 minutes for photography, let alone setting up and painting them from life. Others will do better, but I think you will have to learn to work fast! Maybe with a combination of life and photography on the younger ones.

The thing I have found, is that even one sitting from life will improve the painting - everything from value in highlights and shadow depth, to skin tone and temperature can be suddenly seen as it actually is - not how your camera has depicted it.

Please share how you do with this, okay?

Patricia Joyce · 07-31-2008, 02:50 PM

You are a brave woman, but with a keen eye and strong drawing abilities you just may be able to do it.

I take care of my granddaughter all day every day and my sketchbook is always nearby. The longest period I have is maybe three minutes before she moves on to something else, or changes position while watching TV (one hour limit, a great time to sketch). I'm afraid the most I can get is a quick study of the tilt of the head, an ear study, or an eye or mouth. I think you could work just as well with photo references after you have done some studies of a child to make color notes, and after seeing how the child "sits" in the atmosphere. With the knowledge of how photographs rob the image of depth, atmosphere, darkens and flattens shadows, they can still be useful in getting down an expression, placement of features, etc.

I can't wait to see your postings. Your work is so exquisite, it will be a treat to see what you "put down" on canvas!!! Have fun and good luck.

Patty

Christy Talbott · 07-31-2008, 03:38 PM

Thanks so much for the encouragement Linda, Michael and Patty. I do appreciate it very much, because this really does frighten me with paying customers. I'll take your advice, Linda, and practice a lot before I start taking commissions this way. Today, to start things off, I just drew my daughter from life. She's four, and she did really well sitting still enough for over 10 min. Here it is:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/portrai...95465/sizes/o/
I'll start a new thread with my next drawing in same way that Michael is doing. See, Michael, you really did inspire me!

Michael Georges · 07-31-2008, 03:59 PM

YAY! Christy, you seem to be a natural talent at this - that's really impressive for just 10 minutes!

Christy Talbott · 07-31-2008, 04:16 PM

Michael, that's just how long Lilah sat still, or close to still. She sat a little while longer, but was moving around a bit. Then I fiddled with it for a while after, so the whole thing took longer, probably 25 minutes I'd guess.

I'm thinking of using audio stories to keep the children entertained while I work. That would work well, I'd think, for the older children anyway.

Patricia Joyce · 07-31-2008, 08:04 PM

Wow, a great drawing Christy!

Michele Rushworth · 07-31-2008, 09:17 PM

I've seen artists set up a portabe DVD player behind their shoulder while painting kids from life. The kids watch a video while the artist paints. Keeps them mostly in the same spot. Perhaps you could pause the movie once in a while and ask them to look right at you for a few minutes while you paint their eyes.

Mischa Milosevic · 08-01-2008, 09:55 AM

Christy, this is what I recommend an artist needs to do to prepare for such challenge.

Get teen models, if you can, being a teen has a smooth face, and do multiple five minute scetches'. Do many of them. Do as many as it would take in order to minimize and solve issues that can arise when doing small children. Limit your self to half hour five minute spurts in which time you need to get all the essential. As you practice this method you will see what you need to better understand in order to get a perfect likeness and or character.

Try it.

All the best