I was commissioned to paint this little girl’s portrait back in January. Her dad Henry previously commissioned another painting, of his dogue-de-bordeaux Rua with some scenic background of county Kerry, Fenit Island just outside Tralee. You can see more information about Rua’s portrait on my blog here.
Eloise is now two years old and she is pictured in a garden looking very happy and clapping her hands. There were some dark red dahlia flowers in the background and I added some more to create a few extra pops of colour. The pinks worked well with Eloise’s subtle skin tone and her pink shoes. The greenery created an excellent contrasting colour to her pale skin and white dress. Her eyes were just lovely and bright and I wanted to capture the sense of fun and happiness of the moment.
I had one photographs from my client. It was a little cut off from the sides and I suggested adding the rest of these in and cropping some areas to the top and bottom of the photo. This created a slightly squarer format. The painting was quite large at 50 x 40 cm to create good impact when hanging on the wall.
Henry, my client, was very happy with the resulting image I emailed him when finished. He was gifting this painting to his wife for Valentine’s Day the 14th February this year. I had it completed just in time to post it over to him. He emailed me when he saw the scan and then again when he received the painting and gave it to his wife:
Hi Ivana! Oh that is fabulous, we absolutely love it. Thank you so much. Absolutely amazing….Just to let you know the painting of Eloise arrived today. It is even better than the proof. We are so so happy with it…Thank you once again. We will definitely be back for another commission. I might look at getting one from our wedding day…
Henry on the painting of his gogeous daughter Eloise, Ballinasloe, county Galway
I worked in my usual way, starting with a line sketch with yellow ochre, the moving onto colour blocking the background before working on clothes and skin tones. I like to put in the basic backround and clothes colours before adding skin tone as each will have an effect on how the colours work together. I made sure to use the same coloure palette in both skin and surrounding colour mixes to create a harmony in the overall portrait.
I have been creating children portraits for a while now and I get a good few every year. They make for great gifts not only for parents, but grandparents and godparents too. If you would like to discuss your own child portrait, contact me anytime at info@trueimage.ie with your photos or ideas.
