Friday, March 9, 2007

Portrait of Taite


This young lady, who was 8 years old at the time of the portrait in charcoal pencil, is brilliant....to put it bluntly, and definitely cut from the same cloth as her enterprising and independent mother. Taite's curiosity and intelligence haven't gone unnoticed at school where she's very popular with fellow students and enrolled in a curriculum for gifted children. Aside from her pretty face and engaging smile, it was very important to me, to capture as much of that effervescent personality as I could. This was quite a challenge...(you have to do the bad drawings and paintings to get to the good ones).. The process took about two weeks of head scratching, hand wringing and three attempts. This is the final one.
Her funny 'Alice in Wonderland' hat actually had a bright leopard pattern on it but the shape alone was so charming that I left it this way.
I really like working with charcoal pencil...It cuts to the chase...no colors to interfere....just rich dark lines and soft tone values used to express my impressions of a subject.
There's no doubt that great things lay ahead for Taite and I'm very excited for her....You go girl!

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