Portrait Sketch, 24x20"

Hello Friends:I am starting a new commission of three little girls, ages 20 months to 5 years old. As you can imagine, a painting of three children in one portrait will be the same amount of work for me as three individual portraits would be. In some ways, it's even tougher, because the relationships between them need to be kept in mind, along with the sizing of the heads, bodies, and hands, as well as the lighting.

A project of this magnitude needs to be well planned from the beginning. I like to paint a preliminary oil "sketch" of the portrait, in order to get agreement from my client regarding the final layout and size of the painting, the positioning of the children and the overall "feel" and colors to be used. In this case, the client was very happy with the positioning of the girls and the feel of the painting, but we were in agreement that the painting needed to be made a bit wider to give more space on the sides. After a bit of debate, it was agreed between us that the painting size will be 28x20".

I'll go back to the drawing board and start a brand new canvas. This sketch took two painting sessions of about 4 hours each, so I haven't spent too much time on it. I would much rather start again now and have a painting the client will be thrilled with than to produce one that's the wrong size and have a so-so reaction. And since I know that the colors and layout are correct, I'll use it as my guide in painting the final portrait.

And while I'm at it, I may change the position of the arm on the left side to bend toward her little sister. I don't like the way that it's pulling us out of the scene. I don't know that I would have seen that if I hadn't done my sketch!