Customer Photo Ref

[Michele Rushworth]

I would pass on this one. Sweet faces, awful lighting. What a viewer will find acceptable in a photo will often just look "off" in a painting or drawing.

There is no usable color information to go by, the cast shadows are weird, the details in the lower left side of the girl's face are almost completely lost in the light, etc.

I'd say thanks but no thanks and use your time to create wonderful portraits that you will be proud of for decades.

[Sharon Knettell]

I would go with Michele on this one. The only reason for using this photo is if the children, had met with, God forbid, some unfortunate fate and this was all she had to remember them by, and she lived in Guam, so nobody local would ever associate you with it.

One of the arts of portraiture is convincing the client of your vision. The children must be quite young still, so a portrait them as they are today would still be beautiful.
If they are still cute, take their picture anyway, from your own point of view. Do it as a portrait sample for yourself. Do not let the mother have any input, just tell her, her kids are so beautiful you would like to paint them and you will give her a PRINT. Who knows, the mother may like it, buy that and you would have a better sample and maybe some money to boot.

One of my portrait samples sits in the entrance of a beautiful Newport home. It was not commissioned by the owner, but she saw it in a gallery and purchased it.

[Mike McCarty]

I think you did say this was to be a pencil drawing. If that's the case you should eliminate the color right away.

If I "had" to do this, this would be the best reference I could create from this photo. No doubt it has a lot of limitations. And I don't know what you do with her mouth. You would surely have to go beyond what is given to you here. This puts a lot of pressure on you to create.

This is why I would create as much space as I could. When you are staring at this with the sides so closed in you tend to focus on all those shortcomings, if it were in a broader field with a stronger composition I think it could help, not cure, those limitations.

I'm not trying to talk you into this, I just enjoy the puzzle.

Best case would be to lose this and do them currently as was pointed out by my two heroines above.

[Chris Saper]

Hi Pat,

I agree that this is an image that needs to remain a treasured photograph. I like Sharon's idea a great deal.

Good luck!

[Sharon Knettell]

Pat,

On one of your replies you wished you had one of Mike's beautiful pictures to work from. Review his photos and methods so you will have something to work on that inspires you.