"Rosie & her six flower girls"
This painting was a Christmas gift from Luke to his wife, Rosie. Tackling this portrait was scary because I know Rosie, and I wanted this to be good, PLUS I’ve never done anything with this many different personalities in one portrait. I mean, look at the expression on the little one to the right of Rosie. No wonder Rosie’s smiling…
…Luke wanted this to be a surprise, and I’m touched that he was willing to take a chance on such an important gift.
I’ll try and take you through the process.
Once I’d done the drawing (1st image on right), I then put liquid masque over the areas where I wanted to be able to wash color, and keep the white of the paper (namely, the small lights against the brick wall). Those are the brown blobs you see.
Next, I painted the bricks and floor to establish my background.
Then I started laying in the pale purples for the shadows of the material, and golds that were reflected in the sparkles that were throughout the dresses. This I had to do slowly as the shadows and reflections are subtle. Remember, everyone was wearing, basically, white! I wasn’t trying to recreate every little nuance, but just suggest what was going on. This, frankly, is what took the most time. The skirt is fundamentally made up of shapes, lots of them, in varying subtle colors. This forced me to call on attributes that I don’t naturally have, namely discipline…
The third and fourth images show more of the laying in of the colors, gradually adding more depth each time.
Luke chose a wonderful gift for Rosie. For me, it was thrilling to see them so happy with my painting.
“She loves it! She was really taken aback.
It so wonderfully captures all the personalities of those little girls and that special moment”
Luke Riddle
“I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!! Thank you so much Sarah! You did an absolutely amazing job!“
Rosie Riddle
If you’d like a watercolor, pastel, charcoal or oil portrait or painting for someone special, please go to my Commissions page or contact me through either email or phone (912-223-8674), and I’d love to work out something for that special person.
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