Drawing Progress-Sweet Little Girls

Well, it's been a few weeks since I posted to this blog. I've been in an art show and sale (I'll blog about that later), and gotten several commissions. This blog is to update and show a progress of a drawing I'm doing for a client. She's having me draw a portrait of her boyfriend's girls.

Shhhh...it's a birthday surprise!

Here's a picture of the girls, all at the age of about 12 months old...at different times. I will call them baby one, two and three (from left to right).

Cute, huh? Well, I had a couple of things to work through. The client wants to have the girls on one portrait as if they had actually posed together. (I've done that many times for clients...so I didn't sweat it...) The girls all have the same beautiful smile, so that is working for me!

The sisters #1 and #2 are facing the same direction, though cropped differently. #3 sister is facing a different direction and holding a bear that covers her chin.

THE DRAWING SO FAR: (16x20 on Caslon /Artigan paper)

So  here is the drawing so far and how I have dealt with any of the above listed dilemmas. (The warped appearance is because of my camera...The portrait is straight and not bowed. And there is light reflecting on their eyes slightly which may look strange)... I have drawn them in a triangle lay out.

I sized the portraits of each of the girls to be as similar as possible. (With the middle girl slightly larger to simulate her "sitting" closer to the viewer). I flipped the sister #3 so that they are all looking in the same direction. And I have not added the bear that #3 is holding, I think it will look much cleaner and less distracting with the bear not there.

The only detail I've done so far is the sister #1's dress and bow (bottom left corner). And I've drawn in each of their eyes. The eyes are the most important to a portrait to capture the subject's personality and looks. I've just begun and have a lot of tweaking to do. This is actually the ugliest part of a portrait and I cannot wait to get further!

Watch for more progress drawings in the next few days!