Avery Rose

I've been commissioned to paint two portraits for an artist on Artid and this is one of them. I worked on it for several hours. It's done in acrylic on stretched canvas and I am basically pleased with it, though I might fiddle with the color a bit tomorrow. I just got a bunch of photographs to work from today. I am so pleased to be working for someone other than myself and Avery Rose is such a beautiful girl, so it was a pleasure to paint her portrait. It's the first acrylic portrait I've done in quite a while. The truth is I will be painting more than just the two portraits. I'm going to paint as many as possible because I love the photos and I need the practice. I will be working not only in acrylic, but in watercolor as well. I enjoy painting children so much, probably because I don't have any of my own. I got a painting tip from About.com-painting about how to approach skin tone which I applied in this painting. I took three primary colors--ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow medium and alizarin (which is red)--and mixed them all together then added various amounts of titanium white to get different skin tones. Avery Rose has lovely pale skin, but I might have made her too pale. The colors in this photograph are not exact. I worked hard and quickly, as I often do when I'm into a painting. Tomorrow I will try painting her brother, Jack Michael. I've already started a watercolor of him, but didn't get too far as I got immersed in this acrylic painting. And there are several photographs of them together which will be a treat to draw and paint. I'm so grateful to the Artid artist for asking me to paint her niece and nephew. I'm starting to really feel like a committed artist which is a wonderful feeling. This assignment might spur me to start posting my business cards locally. I love doing this.