Awww...

A few months ago, my nephew's wife posted an adorable photo on Facebook. The moment I saw it I knew it was a painting waiting to be painted! I asked her permission and she said yes.

The photo was of her youngest child and a friend who were watching their big brothers play baseball. There is a lot of waiting. Apparently, these two were playing a game on a phone. As she said, "If you take the electronics out of the story, it's much more idyllic."

I knew this had to be a pastel so I sketched it out on toned paper and began. (Toned paper beats looking at a blank white sheet any day...and it gave me a mid-tone reference.)

If you look closely, you can see the drawing - including the fence separating them from the ball field.
I worked on his shirt, some more on her hair and tried some 'grass' color and shading...and then got stuck.

I saw two issues. First, the fence. It is on a slight angle. Would it lead the viewer's eye out of the picture? The other issue...in the photo, she was wearing her school uniform...a plaid jumper. I have never tried to paint plaid!

So, I thought I would see if I could change the fence and the color of her clothes... I got out some of my acetate and drew/painted on it to try out some options.

Sorry about the reflection, but here is the fence going in another direction and she now has on a very awful color green dress. That does NOT work.

I tried several other colors - including blue, pink, purple, yellow and red...

Then I tried a plaid - sort of...

I stopped there and decided I needed a consultation... I would take it to class.
The next week, I took all the different color jumpers to class. I did not show the original photo until we had looked at everything. Everyone thought the plaid jumper was the way to go. They also said to leave out the fence. It is not needed to tell this story.

The other suggestion was that his arm/hand looked awkward. In the photo, he was leaning back on it and his fingers were pointed backward. They thought the hand should go the other way.

When I got back home, I got out my wooden figure and tried out a few poses.

I kept experimenting - First of all, I left out the fence.
A friend had lent me a book with an article on "How to paint plaid."
And then I worked on the arm/hand.

The plaid got better, but he looks like he is about to fall over!

At this point, the paper I was working on had no more tooth. There was no way to continue to work on it with my pastels. I decided to begin again.

This time I used sanded paper. I did my sketch and then a watercolor wash to give me some color shapes.

I darkened the shadows and did a lot of tweaking of the arm. Who knew arms could be so tricky? Many hours later... I'm calling it done. (at least for now - I put it across the room where I can look at it for a few days)

I think it looks a little more natural, but I also think he looks older! Maybe that's because it took me so long to 'fix' it. We probably both aged during this process.