The St Michaels Art League has a show coming up in late summer with the theme "Reflections." I went looking in my picture file for some old photos of granddaughters who had discovered the freestanding mirror in our bedroom.
The girls has decorated some old straw hats with flowers and stickers - they were very proud of their creations. They were wearing their princess nightgowns and fancy hats when they found the mirror. What a show they put on! This one was particularly fascinated. She picked up another flower which became her microphone and began singing "I feel pretty..." (Her mother used to sing that to them, so she knew the words!)
As I looked through the old photos, I couldn't find just what I wanted so I decided to try to combine three different shots. There was Leighton singing, another with part of the mirror (so you would know it was a reflection), and another of her back. I sketched these separately and then tried to put them into one.
I began with a sketch.
The hat is the wrong angle. So I began taking pictures of the hat to get the right perspective.
Here's the next sketch.
I played with that for awhile and then did a watercolor underpainting. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of that. I was too excited and wanted to get on with my pastels!
I have been working on this more and have gotten this far.
I need to 'pink up' her face a little and tweak here and there...and then decide what to do about the background in the mirror. In the original photos, the background is very dark. I am leaning toward a very neutral lighter color - not what was in the original photos... I have said this before, but the wonderful thing about painting from a photograph is that I can change anything I want to. As one of my painting teachers has said many times "You do what the painting needs."
I welcome suggestions! Will post a final in a few weeks...
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