This is a painting I worked on just before Christmas. It is of two sisters sitting on a swing in a park. The reference photo was quite dark and I brightened it up a good bit. I added some more width to create a wider landscape format which increased the sense of movement in the image.
The painting is 20 x 40 cm in size painted with acrylics on stretched canvas. The painting was commissioned as a Christmas present for the client’s sister of her children. The client was very happy with the result and sent me a lovely email. She was delighted with it when she collected it over the holidays.
Hi Ivana! That is beautiful, thank you. My sister will love it. The colour is lovely in it too. You are excellent at what you do.
Nuala, County Meath, Ireland
I worked in a few layers as usual. The background is painted more loosely than the girls’ faces keeping the detail concentrated on their skin, eyes and hair. I wanted the portrait to have a sense of movement because the girls are on a swing and adding some directional strokes to the grass in the background helped this. I brightened the dark shadows in the girls’ faces and their eyes. I took a close up photo of the finished portrait:
Close Up of the painting 
Client photo