Family portrait commission
reference photo

Family portrait commission
phase 1
alkyd oil paint on canvas
24 x 30 inches

For the past couple weeks I have been working on a family portrait commission. It will be taking up most of my painting time, so I thought to post it as a work in progress. I regret that I did not take a photo of the drawing on the canvas. I felt I did a fairly good job capturing the likeness of all three. However, it happens quite often that once you start putting paint to the drawing you can sometimes lose the likeness and have to work at getting it back. I imagine I will be reworking the faces quite a few times. I do know I am not alone in this process in making more than one attempt to "get it right". There will be many changes made to this painting in the weeks to come. I originally had the big tree behind in the background but it looked so obtrusive, so I wiped it out. Because this photo was taken on the family's property the tree is probably important to have in the painting so the big tree will be going back in.