A Dream Commission

So, my holiday wasn’t completely idle. I was able to squeeze in some work, and had the chance to paint a portrait of one of the Philippines’ most beautiful women.

I had just finished having the most fantastic lunch date with several lovely ladies when I received this message:

 

I was speechless for a long while! Of course I said, yes! And gave them a huge discount too, because who in their crazy mind would pass up the chance to do a portrait of the lovely Lucy Torres Gomez, right?! Never mind that I was on holiday and wanted to just spend time with family and friends and recharge.  I wasn’t passing up this chance!

After speaking with her staff, they sent over some pictures of her, and I chose one that I thought looked best in terms of colour palette and angle.  I started with a pencil sketch, which is my favourite phase:

 

 

This is the most fun part! More often than not, I actually prefer the result of the sketch rather than the coloured-in version.  It’s much easier to control pencils than water and paint.

With much trepidation and the utmost concentration, I started colouring in the portrait.  I didn’t bring any art materials with me while I was on vacation, so I actually had to buy whatever I could find.  I was so happy to find Prang Watercolours! I learned to paint using Prang. The paper I ended up using is actually made for sketching – it was too absorbent! I had to adjust my style considerably, but I did like the result.

 

 

And here it is, the final portrait that I shipped to her staff, who gave it to her as a birthday present. I hope she loved it!