Anabelle Joy series

For the past month and a half I have been working on a set of baby portraits for a friend of mine who commissioned the drawings as a gift for his wife's birthday. The birthday is past and I can finally show you all!









You can see the whole with WIPs here.

Raining babies

I've always wondered about where the term "baby shower" came from...I don't have time to look right now...but it seems right that it has something to do with showering the expectant mum with pressies. This card is for my friend Jayne (who I used to baby sit when she was young!) :)

NOOOO!

Oh man! I stuffed it! I was so close to being finished and then I decided, for some unknown reason, to try blending with a tissue. Unfortunately for me it must have had some kind of moisturising additive in it, because it made an unholy mess of my drawing....I haven't had the motivation to pick it up since LOL.



I did do a baby portrait in the meantime though, and I have started on a self portrait. I'll include a scan of the baby pic with this post, and then I'll post the SP a bit later on when it's looking a bit more presentable.



The baby portrait is approximately 5x7", graphite on bristol board.

Baby BJ Finished!

Finished! This little cutie has turned out much better than I had anticipated and I am quite chuffed with the texture I was able to create for her jumpsuit...in the past I usually rushed to finish the clothing on a subject without giving it the same attention as the face and hair, but this time I forced myself to slow down and work at getting a realistic fluffy texture...I'm not sure that it shows up particularly well on the scan, but I am REALLY happy with it :o) Now all I need to do is matt and frame it ready for delivery...if I remember I'll take a piccy and post it so you can see the finished product.

M

Two Cheeks! :o)

The face is basically done for the moment. I may need to go back and darken the right side of the face a little more, but I'll decide that later on. The digital photo has dropped out some of the mid tones along BJ's jaw line...so the line is a little harsh, but it is a nice soft gradation IRL.

Next step....hair!

Cheeky Baby BJ

I've started to darken the right side of the forehead that is in shadow, and I've started to model the nose , left cheek and upper lip, and already baby BJ is starting to look a little more smiley. :o)

Don't you just love baby cheeks?? I just want to pinch 'em!

Baby BJ finding the darks

Okay...now I've started to establish the darkest areas of the portrait so that I can use them as a guage for the rest of the tones in the portrait and keep things balanced as I go along.


Baby BJ is looking a little stunned at the moment :o) but that will turn into a gorgeous smile as I begin to render the upper lip and chubby cheeks. You may also notice that she doesn't have eye lashes yet...I like to wait until very close to the end in case I need to adjust any of the tones around her eyes.

I think I've probaby put 5 or 6 hours into this so far.

Baby BJ

I love drawing babies! All that smooth skin and wonderful big eyes! This is a project that I am doing as a baby gift for a good friend of mine of her beautiful little girl. I think its always more fun drawing people I know...there seems to be more of a connection...that and I can have fun deciding which of her parents BJ got her features from :o).


So..here goes...I'm using 2b and H graphite on Strathmore Bristol 300 series smooth.


I always start by rendering the eyes...if I can't good a good likeness in the eyes, it's useless trying to complete the portrait.

Next I'll start to establish some of the darkest areas of the portrait so that I can keep the tone balanced as I go along.