This was a commission for my Great Aunt. She lives in a nursing home in a country town, and was brought an enormous Mr Lincoln rose – a small boy was completely amazed by it, and she was very taken by his expression. So she wanted two pictures, identical (which makes one feel rather as though one is regarded as a Xerox machine). I think one is to go to the boy's mother, and the other to his grandmother.
However, there was a slight problem: I have never seen this little boy, I had no reference photo, and only the information that he was about three, sturdy, and blond. In addition, while I can render a photo very accurately, my illustration style is completely different, and who knows if the recipients will appreciate such pictures – of a small boy that probably looks nothing like the one in question? His expression is probably nothing like the original either, but I'm afraid I can't help that.
But one does not argue with 92 year old ladies.
So here we have the two images, as close to identical as I can get them.
I actually ended up doing two and a half pictures – I was halfway through painting the first one when I realised that I'd given him five fingers. Arrg! I'd never done that before, and no one picked up on it when I was begging to be told if the sketch looked okay – so I just had to start all over.
The rose was painted in Ecoline, which never scans at all well. Here's a photo which shows the nuances of colour slightly more effectively.
Artline Drawing System pens (0.1 and 0.4), Winsor and Newton watercolours, Ecoline liquid watercolours, Prismacolour pencils.
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