Children Oil Portraits

Oil portrait of a little boy in a blue jeans shirt sitting on a wooden fence.

Celebrate the innocence and wonder of childhood with a hand-painted oil portrait. Each piece captures the unique personality and spirit of your child, creating a cherished family heirloom.

What Makes Portraiting Children Challenging?

NOTHING! Of course I have painted many hundreds of portraits, the majority of which were children!

Here is something that challenges parents, though it needn’t:

“How am I going to get my young child to sit still, even for a photoshoot?”

Yes, rare is the parent who doesn’t wonder that. Well, it is easier than you think. Whether you get the photo references for your children oil portrait done by a photographer near where you live, or if my photographer husband and I do them, every detail doesn’t have to be perfect all in the same photo.

I recommend getting an overall shot of the child that shows a relaxed pose that you are pleased with first. Then, with the same lighting and relative position of the body, go back and photograph the head separately.

Just considering portraiting one’s children can be challenging too, when parents have unanswered questions. I’d like to try to clear up a few of these mysteries here:

“How old should my child be? What is the best age for children oil portraits?”

Call Jessica at 727-442-5553 / Email her easily

When is that incredible innocence of a child most irresistible? As particularly experienced as a children’s oil portrait artist, I recommend to portrait as early as possible. I mean at least starting at 2½ (or even 2) years old, with ages 3-5 being especially appealing. They look like the person they are going to be, yet they are still little tykes. However, when parents can’t wait, younger portraits are priceless too, of course, as you can see in this oil portrait painting here!

If your child is already 6 or 8 or 10 or 12 or 14 or 16 or 18 or 20 (…) years old, don’t hesitate then either. They are all magnificent. Capture that youthful beauty in a children’s oil portrait as fast as you can. How can you go wrong for such an exquisite memory (if you are lucky enough to have found the right artist)?

“Do you recommend any particular poses for portraits of children?”

Head and shoulder views are great at any age.

The ¾ pose which includes the hands can be larger in overall size which can be nice. The hands and how the person

sits share a lot more information to delight the viewer. Again, this portrait is good for any age.

The full-length pose perhaps has less use because it is much larger. The one guaranteed winner for this pose, however, is the 3-5 year-old child because their height-to-width ratio is so darn cute! Combine that with bare feet and you will have smiles from everyone for a life time … and more!

“What are the pros and cons of portraiting siblings together or separately?”

Do you picture them together? Some parents just want their children together. They always are together and that’s how they are thought of mostly. So, yes, this makes a perfect choice for you!

Would there even be any advantage to having them painted separately?
Here are a few points to consider for your children’s oil portraits to be painted separately:

You could still display the portraits next to each other.
Each child can inherit their own portrait to pass down their own family line.
You could get the reference photography for all of your children, aged 3 or older, done right away to have the most innocence recorded as early as possible.
Then you could opt to get just one of them painted each year.
Then each following child could be photographed when they reach the age of 3.
It is also popular to get one’s children all painted at the same age, no matter what age is decided.

Why would you want me to be your children’s oil portrait artist?

• If you find that we communicate well together about your project, you’ve jumped one of the highest hurdles. Family oil portraits are very personal. More than ever you want to be able to communicate well to get such a delicate job done beautifully. If we are able to share understandings easily and feel that we know what to expect from each other, you can see what an advantage that would be.

You’ve noticed how well I capture a likeness in the Photo to Painting Gallery: https://www.rockwellportraits.com/portraits/photo-to-painting/

You look at my website and you love what you see in the over 100 portraits in the galleries and blogs. You appreciate the detailed faces and hands. And you like how these are set off with more playful and impressionistic strokes in the backgrounds.

The portrait paintings look alive and fresh.

The subjects are relaxed and happy.

If you go to the “Select Category” tab in the Left Side Bar and choose “Portraits in Oil of Children” in the dropdown menu, you will arrive at a page with over 40 blogs dedicated to my painting children. Most of them tell you of the adventure of painting a particular portrait. You can read the glowing reports from many families’ experiences.

You can also select “Tags” in the Left Side Bar or at the very bottom of every page on a mobile device and select boys or girls. There are a few choices for each to get to the individual stories of so many portraits.

You will have a part in the culture and history of “The Land of the Brave and the Home of the Free” that my cousin Norman Rockwell popularized in his warm, human and truthful paintings. Although I am but a cousin, the very name “Rockwell” evokes his idealistic portrayals of American life. I love forwarding those visions of generous, caring, good-natured families and seemingly more innocent times. Most every nation has them for sure. But it was Norman Rockwell who showed them in his 300+ painted covers for the American magazine, The Saturday Evening Post. These paintings gave us a glimpse for us to enjoy and for the world to see.

For more about starting an oil portrait:

You might also look at my article: Commission an Oil Portrait

To view the next gallery: