Emilie

I decided to do portraits of the kids that were killed in Newtown, CT and send them to their parents. I haven't done a lot of portraits but I figured I'm an experienced painter so I should be able to handle this. Because I use acrylic that needs about 10-15 minutes to dry I started four by doing drawings and then adding washes. This went pretty well until I started seeing places where the resemblance was off. I spent a lot of time correcting the drawings, then when I got a better likeness I added more washes to build up general shadow areas and then started adding color. Then I started having trouble. I'd fix a color issue only to notice a resemblance problem so I'd fix that but now the colors weren't working. Needless to say I'm in over my head but determined to carry on and hoping to get looser although I have difficulty adjusting details and staying loose. Emilie Parker is the first one I have finished. Her eulogy said that she loved to draw and would make cards for people so I felt a kinship with her. We probably would have had fun drawing together and it made me think about making art with kids.