This 16 x 20 oil was quite a challenge! Photographers all deal with photoshop and a large number of artists do as well now. Sometimes I think that a little more sketching would bring the brain back as "photoshop" is something an artist always did....long before the computer! This little girl came from 2 photos. I created a pastel of her sister 6 years ago and they had an "oil photograph" made. So I had a photo of the little blond headed sister-full body and a head and shoulder photo of the other dark haired sister...basically combining them together and then deciding to add the arm to the right as the original photo showed (vaguely, in parts) her little arms pulled up to her body. But after painting that, it looked awkward, so I rubbed out the arm (with a crowd watching) and sketched it back onto the canvas and then painted it. Fun with a crowd around! Anyway the client was THRILLED with the results.
The very cool thing is that the dress in the oil was detailed (more so than the photograph) and it had been made by the grandmother. Both little girls wore it for their portraits (6 years apart!) Grandma's Dress is an heirloom as is now this portrait!
