Today is this little lady’s 1st birthday! And to celebrate, her grandma commissioned me to paint a portrait of her.
From a photograph, I can turn a portrait into a contemporary minimalist style art piece using black and white paint to accentuate the face, clothes, and hair (sometimes even a hat yes, lol), and a bright colour for the background to make it pop (but can be a subtle colour if you like instead). Here we went with a fun pink, which I colour matched to the shirt Ella was wearing in the reference photo.
‘Ella’ | 8″x8″ | acrylic on canvas | commission
What a little cutie, hey?
Unlike Pet Portraits that require a high resolution reference photo, this style of portrait focuses on the contours of the face, therefore we could use almost any quality of photo (for instance this one was snapped on a iPhone) and still achieve this crisp style of painting as a final result.
For those curious as to how I finish the edges of the Kids Portraits, I paint the top, bottom, and sides a solid colour (usually black, unless specified otherwise).
picture showing 1.5″ deep black painted edges
This portrait was painted on a 1.5″ deep canvas frame, and with the crisp black edge it finishes off the painting nicely so no framing is required. You can hang the canvas as is on the wall, or you could set it on a decorative shelf (since it is a small scale it will stand alone no problem), or even add it to a picture collage wall.
Just for fun, here is a pic sequence of the gift wrap:
Series of 4 photos showing ‘Ella’ painting being opened from gift wrap
Simple & sweet!
For more information on this style of portrait, or to see other examples, please check out my ‘Minimalist Portraits‘ portfolio section.
So happy first birthday Ella! I hope you, your mom, and grandma (& friends & family too) have a fun day celebrating together! Take care
