Demure Missionary (Fenstermaker)
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 12×16 acrylic June 2020
This is another in my series of gift portraits for missionaries serving in our area. They are all so enthusiastic and sweet and it seems so little to do for them. I took the reference photo in a little photo shoot that I took of her one sunny day. I like the contemplative mood as she demurely looked down. An advantage of the composition is that I didn’t need to paint her very long name, “Fenstermaker” in that tiny print! The challenge was capturing the light coming through her long and curly hair and lighting the tip of her nose.
Below is the sweet sister missionary holding her photo:
Below are a couple of early drafts of the painting as it took form. The markings are for little areas to correct and modify:
