It all started with this picture....
My grandmother loved that it fit me and decided that I needed to do a portrait of her in the dress at my age, and then a portrait of me in the dress. So, I started her portrait first, based solely on this picture above and a couple of pics that I had of her face from around the time she was my age.
For composition ideas I turned to Jan Vermeer, a Dutch painter from the 17th century. He is noted for his paintings of women in domestic settings and raking light originating always from the upper left corner, which, in sacred geometry is reserved for heavenly matters (and therefore the bottom left for earthly.)
To assist me with the lighting
I took picture of myself in a similar setting. The only problem was that because both of my reference photos were of me, the figure in the portrait began to look rather emaciated...
So, I got my sister to model for me, as her body type is much more normal and reminiscent of my grandmother's...
The Love seat also seemed to compliment the composition better than the chair...
When it came time to paint the face... well, let's just say I almost committed suicide multiple times. I literally painted and repainted the face at least 12 times. These are just a few examples.
As for the dress, I painted that a few hundred times also... here are a few examples...
I started off with a smooth texture, then went nuts with the wrinkles, then scaled it back again.
I'm sick of posting pictures and trying to arrange them correctly, so here's the final product. All-in-all I worked on it over the course of three months, not consistently of course. It was probably my toughest portrait, mostly due to my lack of proper reference material, photos and the like. Let my pain be a lesson to all of you!
My grandparents are amazing. They've lived long, rich, interesting lives. My grandmother loves to travel, and I see this little cabinet of curiosities as a symbol of how she has lived her life. I love all of the little objects she collects and cherishes. As a child my eyes would bulge three inches from my head as I longed to tickle my fingers across the various knickknacks locked safely behind glass. Once she let me play with a tiny gold heart-shaped music box from some Asian country, which i promptly destroyed.
