I have been wanting to paint my mum for a while. She has been sitting for me once a week for the last four weeks. I didn't realize quite how gloomy I had made her look. What I have failed to capture, is a particularly quizzical expression in her left eye. I've just succeeded in making her making her look miserable, which she isn't.
I keep getting tempted to fiddle around with her features, before I have properly resolved the structure of her head. I find that once I have sorted out the structure, the features almost paint themselves. But she has such interesting eyes, it is almost irresistible not to paint them first. I love painting a face that I am so familiar with. Although in some ways it is more difficult, as I have to force myself to be objective, to understand and interpret what I am seeing and not just paint what I know. I am reckoning on ten sittings so I'll see how it goes.
