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Oil Portrait of Children: Two Little Angels

Oil Portrait of Children: Two Little Angels

Oil Portrait of Children: Two Little Angels

How many twins in one family? The Dohrings had five children…. ranging in ages from 5-10. That’s more than one oil portrait of children. The mother decided to portrait them separately—or, you might say, in groups. I advised doing the youngest first because they were just five years old and were on the borderline of growing up out of that oh-so-precious age of “childhood innocence”. (At least children look that way—I think they know a lot!)

Their house was on a windy road on the side of a small mountain range, yet they still had a carpet of grass, if slanted upward behind the house. One particularly nice feature was a gazebo. The little girls of course kept me running as they showed me this and that as suggestions for my photographic references. But when we ended up in the gazebo, I knew we had the right spot. Even the sun was amazingly cooperative. Strong lights that rimmed the sides of their bodies. Yes!

When I painted the picture I was surprised how different the girls looked—not even like identical twins. Yet when they ran past you couldn’t tell them apart. This being the first time that I had portraited twins, I tried to meld their identities so they actually looked like twins in my painting. When the mother saw that, she immediately told me that I was portraying two Kelseys (“Kelsey” being the name of one of the little girls). It was an easy fix because I had good references and could see the differences. However, since then I have noticed that same phenomena. In fact I would say that it is even routine that twins look different when photographed in 2-dimensions even though they look the same in 3D life. I have to admit, I kept the photo I had made of the “Two Kelseys” for my portfolio. I thought if I didn’t, every time someone looked at my picture of the painting, they would ask me, “Are they twins?”

Would you like to see my painting procedure (and compare it to Cousin Norman Rockwell’s)? I’ll make that a separate post–the next one. If you look closely you will be able to see how different the girls look at the last “brown and white” phase, before I idealized them in color.

Also soon, I’ll tell the story of painting the other set of twins. (There’s your answer to my first question—as if you didn’t know!)

You can call me at 727-442-5553, email me at the gray contact button on the top right of this page,  and visit my website.

Stay tuned….

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