Grace in Progress


The grandfather of the subject of the Baby Grace painting last week has purchased that painting and now the mother of Grace has commissioned one for herself. Nice, huh? I worked on this start for about three hours today. It's an 8"x 10" oil on canvas panel. Still much to do, but I thought I'd post my "so far." She still needs the white bow for the top of her head and some subtle changes here and there, but doesn't that sidelong look and the dimpled smile just GET you? I'm gotten.

9 comments:

Pattie Wall said...

Don't know how you do it! Your babies are really good! I have trouble with them....they end up looking like aliens. Course in a way, I guess you could consider that. Oh, just kidding.

Regina Calton Burchett said...

This is lovely, Susan. What a great little expression you've captured! Almost as cute as my new granddaughter.. who hasn't reached the alien stage yet. About 13 more years to go.

Mrs. G. said...

Awwww...

Karen Hargett said...

How cute - sweet face. I don't know how you do it either - lovely work.

Ann Reyes said...

Susan, I love the baby portrait!!! You're just amazing! I can't wait to see it finished.

Stacey Peterson said...

Awww - look at that sly little smile!! You have a unique talent for capturing the personalities of young babies - it takes a lot of skill to be able to paint a child so young and capture their features. A lot of portrait artists won't even paint children so young, and yet here you do it so well that you prove it's possible to do it extremely well!

Sarah Sedwick Studio said...

Wonderful! She's adorable, and you really captured it.

Dianne Mize said...

I gotta tell ya, those warm/cool alternations in the baby's shadow are absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. A wonderful little portrait!

Susan Carlin said...

Thank you, Everyone! I completely understand Pattie's comment about the alien effect.It's true that babies are wicked hard. And sometimes you just want to tell people, "Let's do it later when he has a face." But this face just caught me and kept me. Craggy old men are generally the easiest to paint, I think, since there are all sorts of angles and all those elements that add up to "Character." The younger men and women are, the more precise you have to be, I find. Anyway, thank you for your encouragement on this one! I'm aching to do a not-commissioned painting soon. Wonder what that will be?