A Commissioned Painting: Grandmother, Daughter and Grandson With the Dog ( Medium: Acrylic Paints on Canvas)

As promised, today I'm sharing a commissioned family portrait, the one I have recently written about. The painting is all finished and I'm quite happy with the result. I was supposed to draw three people: grandmother, daughter and the daughter's baby (i.e the grandson).  In addition, I also needed to portray one animal and that's would be the family dog. As you can see, it is a very busy painting. Basically, it is a portrait of a grandmother, a daughter and a grandson with the family dog. I had spent a lot of time studying the photograph I was given and deciding on the proportions and the composition. Before I even started working on the painting, I had made three pencil sketches and one carbon sketch on paper. Only then did I proceed to do make a final carbon sketch on the canvas. Besides the obvious challenges, there were also many details I needed to pay attention to. The light was especially challenging. I have spent so much time doing the drapes and trying to capture the light coming through the main light source and the drapes themselves, that I'm still tired. However, I think the end result was more than work the trouble.

The composition of the painting was a challenge, and as you can imagine it took a lot of work to get it right. I worked on this painting for a whole week. I have put about 20 hours of work into it, if not wore. That's really a lot. The grandmother (the lady holding the baby boy), the mother (the girl feeding the baby) and the baby are all sitting in front of a glass patio door. Behind the glass, the family dog looks after them. In the background, their garden is visible. Very sweet scene, isn't it? In every way possible, it was a challenge to paint, but the painting captures such a precious family moment, it makes all the hard work seem worth it. Do you know what I mean? Do you think hard work pays off? Did it pay of in this portrait? Have you ever commissioned a family portrait? Do you have any family portraits at home? How do you like this portrait?

a finished painting, acrylic paints on canvas

first sketch drawing

separate sketch of the dog

second pencil sketch

carbon sketch on paper (final sketch before sketching on canvas)

carbon sketch on the canvas itself (fixated with an adhesive spray)

first layer of paint

(approximately) fourth layer of paint 

I was feeling a bit stressed while I worked on this one, and not only because it is a huge responsibility to paint a family portrait. Everyone knows that painting a portrait from a photograph is not the way to go. Moreover, I was given a very dark photograph to work with. I tried lightening the photograph, but it didn't work, the photograph was taken with a cellphone and was very unclear. Fortunately, I'm able to read colour no matter how dark it is. I'm also able to tell what the colour will look like under different lighting. The darkness of the photo didn't make the portraying impossible, but it complicated things. When it comes to people and animals portrayed, it all worked out in the end.  I've seen the dog earlier, so that made it easier to draw it.  The dog is a Malinois, i.e,  a short haired variety of Belgian Shepherd dog breed. In the case you didn't know, it is a very intelligent dog breed and I have done my very best to capture that. I researched the breed a bit, so I can render it better. The grandmother  portrayed in the painting was the person who commissioned the painting. Since I met her, portraying her wasn't that difficult. I was feeling uncertain about the portrait of the daughter and the grandson because I haven't seen them before. However, I got to meet them  by accident this very Sunday, just as I was finishing the painting. My husband and I went for a walk, and we ran into them. What a coincidence! Having meet them, I was feeling confident that I can complete the painting. Soon after, I added the finishing touches and the painting was finished. So, that's my story about this painting. Do tell me what you think about it. The weekend is almost here. Do you have any special plans? I'm attending a wedding party tomorrow, I can't wait.

fourth layer of paint

a completed painting

 As always, thank you for reading. I'm always looking forward to reading your comments. Have a nice day everyone!

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