Lilac Whispers-Portraits

Double Portrait Work In Progress

Whispered secrets in the shade of a lilac garden.
                                 

These cute kids are my sister-in-law's two grandchildren.The older one has already graduated college. She's been after me to do a painting for a while, so here goes. .
This is oil on an 18 x 24 stretched canvas. A bit unusual for me since I have worked almost exclusively on small 5x7 canvas panels for the past six years or so.
I remembered to take more snaps along the way than I usually do.

Session #1

First I worked from a grid. Because this is larger than I'm used to, plus it's a double portrait. Had to be as accurate as possible right from the start. After it was drawn, I used a sharpie on the important lines I didn't want to lose...kinda like a road map.

I tinted the entire canvas with thin alizarin acrylic to establish a warm mid value. This makes it much easier to judge your first darks and lights.Then I laid in the darks.

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Session #2 

 

Now I started to state the darks with thin oil. Mainly pthalo blue and alizarin crimson.

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Session #3

 At this point, I began to feel out some color blends and values. Straight from the tube but applied rather thinly with a scrubbing motion.

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Close up of session #3

I spent more time in developing the faces than anywhere else at first. I knew if it didn't work there, I would have to start all over.

Next post on these kids coming soon..... probably will include the finish. Make sure you come back! More to come!