Happy Birthday Michelle

So, today being Michelle's birthday, I had to post some progress on her portrait. What I'm concentrating on lately is her clothing. But I've also noticed a distinct lack of an essential element when painting portraits of children. Green. Believe it or not, children tend to have more green tones in the lower third of their faces. Personally I think it's the translucent skin over (absolutely no fat and...) veins. Their faces are like the inside of adult wrists. Blue veins under skin tend to give a green hue. So, I will have to revisit that omission.

Additionally, I've started working on a study of one of my Grandmother's tea cups. Interestingly enough, this is a Shelly china cup. I think she and Michelle must be laughing about this today. I love Grandma Winnie's tea cups. I've wanted to paint them since they arrived at my house. But I have always been loathe to attempt any such thing in the shadow of the great Jelaine Faunce; the penultimate realist of anything remotely related to (among other things) epicurean comforts. Jelaine not only lives in the same city as I do, and is a genuinely nice person, AND... I own one of her pieces (see previous post), but her mother's teacups are some of her most detailed paintings. So I've been afraid to even attempt to paint them. However, I now know why the chicken crossed the road. Just to see if she could do it, without getting flattened.