By the Lake (Johnston)

by Godfrey J. Ellis – 12×16 acrylic 2020

This portrait was painted from a small, very dark, and somewhat fuzzy reference photo (see below). It was the one my friend liked, so… that’s the one we used. I wouldn’t want to do that again, because it made it very difficult. The goal in this portrait was to capture her sweet smile, which I hope I have done. He had other, lighter photos, but they didn’t have this smile.

Bob saw one of the later drafts (something I don’t like to allow) and thought her skin was too washed out. Well, of course it was, it was a work-in-progress and not finished. Once I had it finished, he was extremely pleased. Here is a photo of him holding the finished portrait:

Below are four photos of the portrait at different stages of the painting. The fourth one is the “washed out” version that he should never have seen and that he didn’t like: