My Little Botticelli - Portrait of a little girl

When I saw this photo sent to me by her grandmother, I knew it might be a little tough because the angle was a little unusual for a portrait.  She was looking up at the camera. But I loved the way her hair chunked up and blew off to the side, it reminded me of Botticelli's Birth of Venus a little and I decided to give it a whirl.  And

I'm glad I did!  I wanted to keep her hair that way because I think it conveys the gleeful action expressed on her darling face.  The angle turned out to not be a problem when I opted for a pretty plain background and close crop.

I started out with a honey colored pastel paper, and used professional grade colored pencils...a mix of brands.  I like the harder prismacolors for the bottom layers and the softer ones to even things out.l  There wasn't much contrast in the photo, so I really had to search hard for the subtle shadowing and color transitions.

The size is approximately 7.5 inches square.  I like this size and this shape and think I'll offer it as a suggestion more often.  It's just large enough to show enough detail, yet would look awesome in a display with the same size of portraits of her siblings.  I hope you will feel free to comment!  Next up artwise is a portrait of a kitty lying, in all things, in a potful of peppermint...the herb type, not the candy type!  And I have some interesting dog things coming up as well.  Thanks for visiting!  Robin

I'm American Artist, Robin Zebley.  My site is HERE robinzebley.com, and is primarily of my pet portraits, but I'm adding children's portraits often (a high school hockey player is coming up soon!).  If you'd like to follow my blog, click on that button to your right.  To read my whole blog, click on the banner at the top.  Thanks for visiting and please feel free to contact me privately if you wish at robinzebleyartist@gmail.com.  Robin

Children's Portrait - Two Little Girls

I love the pose of these girls, love how the light shines on their beautiful faces. In real life, the portraits are much darker on the dark side. I will try and get better photos, but have taken a hundred and they still don't really show the details and coloring exactly right.

This is colored pencil on dark red Mi Teintes pastel paper. I love this paper personally, and chose it because it's almost black but warmer and I think it works with dramatically lit subjects.

I had a question from a tweetpal who wanted to know how I blend the colored pencil so you don't see the pencil strokes? Here's my answer. The way I like to do that is with a lot of layers, and I do mean a lot in some spots. I also use a cut stencil brush to polish the skin and push it right into the pits of the paper so no paper shows. I use dull "points" to glaze color on. I also love to use the sides of the pencil "lead". It makes it nice and subtle...a nice light touch. I only use sharp points at the end for details, which don't even show in this photo...the eyelashes, the transitions in colors...

Anyway, I spent about 10 times on this as I do a dog portrait! I learned a lot that I will be able to use in my next human portrait! I hope you enjoy it! Robin
I'm artist, Robin Zebley. I've done hundreds of pet portraits over the past 8 years and now am building my portfolio of "human" portraits! My site is "http://robinzebley.com