Family portraits

My mum is an artist (you can view all of her fantastic work here) and so when I go back to the US, I am lucky enough to paint with my mum in her studio. Over my last two trips home, I painted two portraits, one of my nanny and my mum. Each one was with a different medium (oils and acrylic) and a different surface (canvas and paper) and each has a characteristic of their own. I definitely need to do more portrait work to get better, but I like my use of colors in each of the paintings and I at least like to think it captures a little bit of personality in each of the subjects.

Before these two portraits, I hadn't done any portrait work for years, so I was quite happy with how they turned out. I am more familiar with oil paints, and they are much more forgiving, however I definitely need to fix my nan’s chin. With the acrylics, it was my first time using them and I found it hard at first with how quickly they dried. I think ultimately I was able to get a more fleshy feel out of the portraits of my mum.

Back in December I also started a self-portrait of myself in oils but ran out of time on my trip. Therefore, I left the photo in my mum’s studio and the jokes on me because in her next visit to London, she produced her painting of me on board (very impressive although I definitely don’t look the friendliest…)