I am not a portrait painter by calling, as I find them challenging. Babies and small children are the hardest. I just spent two days working on a painting from this photo. It was not easy for me, as I do not do portraits very often. The grandmother wanted trees and surf in the background, so I made up a background with Palm Trees and surf and clouds in the sky. She did not want the block in the hand, so I formated the painting without the hand.

The more I have done commissions in my life, the less I want to do them. People either love them or hate them and there is no middle ground. I was told it does not look like her granddaughter and that she had too much “makeup”. I do wonder how you are to have roundness, depth and light without any change in color.

I did a little research before beginning and read that babies (i.e. young children) are the hardest to paint. I watched a few videos on painting babies and felt pretty good about the result. The person I painted it for is coming over tomorrow to see what she thinks. I think I don’t like doing portraits and am really an abstract or impressionistic painter.

Update:

Since the grandmother did not like the painting, I decided to work on it a little more. I thinned the face and lightened the eye. I think the trees in the background more of a distraction, but that was part of the request. The other was to take the toy out of the hand.