Finished!

Made the final push on this to get it finished.
The girl in the background was the hardest to decide what to do. I made the decision to loose her hat because the shape was hard to recreate, then I decided to do away with her jumper around her waist. I liked the pink however the arm of the jumper was sticking out at a strange angle making it hard to read as a jumper arm. I had to make an artist judgement what her waist underneath it would look like.
I am pleased with the animation I've caught in their expressions and poses so kept the background plain. I have worked into the blue leaving brush strokes to also give a feeling of movement.
Now for the scary bit, waiting to hear if the lady who commissioned the piece is happy. I hope so I'm pleased with it, and enjoyed working with the lovely photos she sent me.
My next commission couldn't be more different. Its a grey parrot called Bertie, if the photos are anything to go by he's very mischievous!

Right we are starting to get somewhere

So happy I lost the hat! Today just filling in the gaps really, making sense of arms and legs (I hope!). Tomorrow I need to do the background to see the effect on the colours and tones on the kids. I'm definitely keeping it simple, just colours. Then last accents and highlights, and probably abit of tweaking!

Lost the hat!

I decided today to loose the hat on the girl at the back. It was a bit shapeless. I had another photo of her without a hat.

I must have a go at the boy sat next to her, he's looking a bit cross-eyed!

4 down 1 to go!

4 started I should say, plenty of tweaking to come. I really want to get the last little girl started tomorrow. Then I need to address the background, after that I can decide my highlights. I also want to harmonise the children using colours that will connect them, which will hopefully make the picture work as a complete composition. This means to use the same colours throughout a picture, e.g; maybe put some yellow from the boys shirt in the hair of the girl in the foreground, or on her necklace, it all helps to direct the eye around the picture.

I think I'm half-way there!

With my usual lightning speed of painting (not!), in just over a week I'm about half -way. I think most of my problem is that I rarely get a uninterrupted day to really get stuck in. I am fairly pleased with how this is shaping up, looking forward to getting on with the last two figures, so I can pull the painting together as a whole composition, rather than 5 individual portraits.