Saturday, October 10, 2009

Little Boy Portrait


Just wanted to show you what I have been working on...it's a portrait of a little guy in colored pencil. I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed working on children's portraits this week!

As much as I've been joking that I have to remember...it's a "nose", not a "snout", I'm just drawing/painting what I see. I have especially enjoyed studying the hues of skintones and picking up the subtle transitions from the warm pinks and yellows to the cool blues and violets.

I didn't do much to change the composition of the photo of this little one that I took from a copyright free site where photographers offer their work free for the taking for artists to use. I wanted a very dark haired child, since I know I have several very fair skinned kids coming up so I would have some variety for my portfolio. When I was starting out in dog portraits, I had a run of golden retrievers. I think I did 9 in a row! Same thing, I don't want to only have blue eyed blonde girls in my "human" portfolio!

This portrait took about a third of the time it took me to do the little girls. I learned sooo much with that one. This time, although also lit darkly, not in bright sunshine, I started out with an almost light valued blue paper. It definitely helped to have that as the undertone, especially with this particular child's coloring.

I hope you like it! Next on tap will be another child, I am on a roll! Hopefully I'll have another one to show you in a few days.

I'm pet (and children!) artist, Robin Zebley. My portrait and woodblock print site is HERE Would you like to follow my blog? Click on "follow" to the right. To read my whole blog, just click on the banner at the top. Have a comment? I'd love to hear it! Thanks for visiting! Robin

4 comments:

dellartist said...

Beautiful, Robin! Love those big brown eyes and the sweet expression. Also the nice, smooth baby skin. I can't wait to see more.

Robin said...

Thanks dellartist!! You made my day!

Angela Finney said...

Beautifully done, Robin. As has been said, his skin looks so soft! Great hands, too!

Unknown said...

Angela, thanks so much!! My life drawing workshops have really really helped me with the hands. I think hands are really expressive and just don't want to have to avoid them, so had to face my "hands fear" head on.