A portrait painting of Arlo

Last summer during a lull in the lockdowns we got to meet the family at a National Trust for a lovely picnic. It was a beautiful hot sunny day and lovely to get some time with the grandchildren.

Arlo actually decided to stand still and let me take some photos of his beautiful face.

I've had the drawing prepared for weeks but haven't sat down to actually start painting until this week. It was lovely to just take some time out and quietly paint at my new-ish art workspace in the kitchen.

Painting stage completed

Coloured pencils added

Finished painting 

I didn't know what to do with the background at all on this one, whether to leave it plain or include the greens as in the photograph. I'm part of a really helpful Facebook group, Portrait artists UK and asked for peoples opinion. I got some really helpful advice and as the majority said to leave the background plain, so I've decided to do just that for the time being, I can always change my mind at a later date. One piece of advice I received was to leave it plain but to add a toned frame rather than white which I think is a great idea it ever gets framed. 

In May 2020 I did 3 Gouache paintings shown here of my 3 children for a mini lockdown project of my own. I wanted silly faces, not sensible ones and I got some reasonable selfies sent through to work with. It's much harder than you'd think getting people to take a selfie, just head and shoulders, against a plain wall, pulling a face. I intended to carry on and do one of each of the grandchildren as well, to frame as a group at some stage and although this one won't be part of that group, due to the differing style, it has spurred me on to start the next one which I drew out yesterday.