December 18 - Commission, and a Lesson Painting Begins

This commission (one of three on my plate this month) is of a lovely woman and child who live in Hawaii. It is a larger painting, measuring 24 x 18 inches, and is to be stylized to be a strong suggestion of the two, but not an exact likeness. I like this idea! Here is the earliest phase of the painting, with the underpainting of the warm burnt orange and the drawing placement of the heads done loosely the way I normally do. I haven't decided if this will be finished in oil or acrylics, but at this stage, I'm working in acrylic. I spritzed the wet orange paint with alcohol to create additional texture. Although most of this will be gone in the final layers, it is always intriguing to having this on the "ground floor", so to speak.

Isn't it appropriate to be doing a portrait of a mother and baby just before Christmas? Life moves in funny and profound ways....