Earlier this year, I was contacted by Marnie. She was enquiring about commissioning a portrait painting of her Mum. This was to be a thoughtful birthday gift for her 60th birthday at the end of March. Marnie’s Mum was visiting from Australia and her daughter wanted to give her something different for her birthday. She looks just stunning in this photo, I love her smile and her kind face. I wanted to capture the bright colour, the range of hues and the lovely lady’s expression in the painting.
Behind the Scenes of the Reference Photo for the Portrait
The photograph the painting is based on is from a wedding day. This explains that Marnie’s Mum is wearing a beautiful dark cerulean blue dress and a fascinator. Marnie emailed me two photos of her Mum: one she wanted to use as a base for the portrait. This photo did not however show the entire fascinator. Therefore I used the second photo that provided me more detail on the fascinator which she really wanted me to include in the painting.
I painted a good few wedding day portraits over the years. There are always great outfits to be had and colours to be seen as often the photographs are professionally taken. I find professional photos great for detail but they present with some challenges for me to create something not as perfect. I strive to create a portrait that is unique and not a copy of a perfect photo.
The photograph I used for the painting had some amazing colours and I wanted to capture these on canvas. Fortunately, acrylics are such a vibrant paint medium. Therefore it was not too much of a challenge once I chose the right hues and made the correct paint mixes. I injected the painting with some strong colour highlights such as oranges and reds to emphasize the warm hues in the photo. To offset the warmth, I created some cool pinks and blues all around.
The process I took to complete the painting in paint on canvas
I worked in many stages for the painting. I started with a sketch as usual. Firstly, I created a dotted grid on my 35 x 25 cm sized fine grain canvas. The canvas is made in Italy by a company called Belle Arti. I have been using their canvases for years. I had done a lot of research previously before I settled on this particular brand. I just love the surface, quality and affordability of their materials.
The second stage of my progress on the painting included me creating a line sketch of the lady and all of her surroundings. When I was happy with how it all tied together, I started mixing my basic colours. I applied these in blocks moving across the entire surface of the portrait.
I used some cool Cerulean blue hue in the dress. I love this shade of blue and I use it all the time in my skin mixes and to add a little cool twist to many of my mixes. I wanted the painting to work harmoniously throughout. Therefore I used the warm and cool mixes in tandem. It is always a challenge I enjoy: not to make things too cool or too warm. In this project, I had cool pinks and blues working with warm yellows, oranges and deep greens.
Finishing touches to the painting from photo
After I finished most of the painting, I left it on my shelf in the studio facing the wall. I turned it around after a couple of days to see it with fresh eyes. I then added some more detail and corrected a few colours and elements of the painting. The fascinator had to be amended a little, as the shape was hard to capture from the photos I had. Therefore Marnie emailed me another photo showing it from a different angle. This helped a lot.
I emailed my client the scanned portrait and she was very happy with the result. I got it all done in time for her to gift this portrait to her Mum.
My client’s response to the painting in a scanned format
Hi Ivana!
Thank you! WOW, it looks absolutely incredible!! It captures her perfectly and I’m so delighted with how it turned out, thank you!
It looks amazing, thank you so much!! Thanks again for all your work. It is much appreciated.
Marnie in her email when she received an image of the painting of her Mum, Dublin, February 2026
I took some photographs of the finished painting before I posted it off to Marnie. The photos show the lovely grain the canvas provides. I feel this is what makes the work so much more personal and unique. It cannot be copied exactly, it shows the little bumps of the paint applied with a hand rather than a digital medium. I am so lucky to consider this work my job.
I am accepting commissions from photos either to create drawings or paintings based on images. I have some very interesting work to share over the next few weeks. I also have some unique projects lined up including a large painting of the New York Skyline and a painting of the Holles Street Maternity Hospital. These landscape paintings will make some interesting additions to my landscape paintings gallery.
You can email your photos to my email at info@trueimage.ie and we can discuss your own portrait commission.
