Portrait of Neave (Human Study)

IT iS NOT often THAT i’m asked to create human portraits, but the photograph provided of this little girl, Neave, was just incredible; so full of detail right down to her flyaway hairs. i was thrilled to step up to the challenge to create a portrait for her family TO LAST A LIFETIMe.

Initially, the client was looking for a smaller commissioned piece, but after hearing about my then-current work on a German Shephard at 700mm x 500mm we began to consider Neave’s portrait on a much larger scale.

A sketch was drawn out over a large, white Pastelmat board and sent for approval, along with a few frame options for the client to consider. The drawing process began over the Christmas period starting with the floral headpiece to begin building on the depth of shadows that were there.

Neave’s portrait continued steadily and meticulously across the next two weeks; working on soft baby skin as opposed to fur was quite different for me! It involved lots of gentle layering of polychromos and luminance pencils to grow the blush of colour, working ‘cinnamon’ into the pinker parts of her face and ‘white’ and ‘ivory’ into the highlights.

the progress images sent across were well-received by the client, who was eager to see the portrait complete! This is always such an incredible feeling for me to know that the art is moving in the right direction to represent the subject.

This is Neave’s complete face which was sent over for approval, the same day that the pre-ordered frame was ready! Usually, this is where I will have completed a portrait as I tend to leave the backgrounds white. However, on this occasion, the client requested that the soft, yellow netting in the original photo background be added to brighten up Neave’s warm tones.

as backgrounds were new to me, I didn’t want to begin working into the portrait without first testing the background style on a separate card to help visualise the end result. The mixture of ‘ivory’, ‘cream’ and ‘raw umber 10%’ resulted in quite a shimmery abstract background which the client loved!

after lots of layers and warm tones, Neave’s portrait was complete. The client was thrilled with the end result which is the most amazing feeling! Creating art for people to represent someone they love is so personal and special; my confidence grows with each commission and always I am left with incredible connections to wonderful people.

Thank you so much to Neave’s family for supporting my work - this piece will always be a very special one to me!