Minature portrait of my great grandparents

This tiny painting... roughly 20cm x 15cm is of the MOST amazing people... my great grandparents... both lived to be in their 90's - they had a genuine kindness and modesty and LOVE for each other with such mutual respect and I miss them dearly.

I decided to give my gran a personalised Christmas gift this year by giving her this painting of her parents :-)

Finally, the portrait is complete!!

A4 portrait sketch for Marwyn Sowden

A4 Portrait sketch for Sheila Linde

Portrait of a little redhead... Maronelle Markram

I've been commissioned to do a portrait of a beautiful little girl... there is something magical about this photo... perhaps the cowboy hat... perhaps those beautiful red curls or those pretty little pink lips...

I've done the pre-sketch on A4 paper... and will start the painting this week...

So, I've now begun the painting of this beautiful little girl. I've managed to do the basic sketch and begin on the background... I now need to wait for this layer to dry and then I'm trying a technique which is new to me and I'm going to use masking fluid... it should give the effect of genuine wood... which is the dark colour you see at the moment... so it will still get it's final coat of paint and then I can begin on the rest of the painting... for now I've done part of the base coat to her skin... she is very fair which is a bit of a challenge but can't wait for the final result! :-)

I managed to get some painting done, the background is not quite yet done... the first layer is now done and drying before I can continue but you can get an idea of the pretty little face :-)

... close up shot...

So this is now the difficult part for me! Having enough patience to let the layers dry... otherwise if you apply to many oil layers on top of each other the paint seems to get a mottled effect - weird... but I've seen it!

For now it doesn't look like much has been done, however I've worked on the background and also the flesh tink blending the colours of her milky skin a bit more, I might need to still make it even lighter as she is very fair...

I managed to have the perfect day off at home and was able to get quite far with this lovely little painting...

My daughter keeps on saying this painting is of her - mommy, Chanéll... and the portrait of hers hanging in the lounge has now been demoted to - girl!

So, still got a bit to go... as it is now, nothing is completely finalised but it is really starting to look good ;-)

Finally making some progress and the painting is coming together nicely... just hope the paint is dry enough to continue tonight (holding thumbs)!

The final brushstroke has been made and the portrait of Maronelle Markram is now complete... I'm very chuffed with the end result! (size 40 x 60cm)