Atelier News: a reconstruction portrait part 3

While happily painting Chris’s portrait, I have now as extra input the portrait of his daughter Lucie. I painted that a couple of years ago, after meeting her extensively. A ‘normal’ portrait so to say, no reconstructing necessary! She has light hair and I didn’t think she and her dad were very much alike (the only reason I wanted a photograph of her portrait alongside Chris’s painting was to make sure the two pictures look good together as they will hang next to each other).

But as it turns out there is so much resemblance! It is amazing what you see when you truly dive into another person… The mouth, the look in their eyes, the stillness around them.

They are beautiful, the little girl and her dad.

I have finished the basic structure and colours of his face (including beard shadow and very thick eyebrows) and worked hard on the shirt (always love doing the fabric and patterns).

To do: a couple of details in his face then his fantastic blue-black, curly, thick hair  and last but not least – the background.
All with the other painting in mind!

Soon I’ll present the finished painting…