Child's portrait

I have all these blog posts in mind - recently, I went to the Green Valley Book Fair, and was thinking I really need to post about my favorite children's books, and why I love them - but I never seem to get around to posting. Hmm...

Just a sketch today. As my website bio says, I teach art at a small private school. Small, but larger than it was last year! I've got about 120 students, ages 4 to 15, who I see each week. Every year, the school does an auction to raise money, and teachers are expected to provide something to sell. I'd done a few super-quick sketches of some of the middle schoolers when we did figure drawing, and the parents really seemed to appreciate them, so I figured I'd offer to do a portrait of the highest bidder's child/children. Two moms ended up splitting the bid, with my approval and one child each. One of the moms already had a portrait of her older daughter, and wanted a sketch of her youngest to match it.



I tried to match the style of the other portrait, but am not sure I succeeded. It was much looser, very soft and delicate (which I tried to capture in the hair, at least). In any case, it was fun - I worked from a photo, but having seen the child every week in art class for the past year really helped.


Note to self: Remember to double up on the paper next time you scan. Otherwise the slide slot shows through!