70th Birthday Present

I'm hoping this commission is now finished. I've fiddled and revisited it rather a lot and it's been one of the most challenging commissions I've undertaken. For starters I was working from old black and white photos on a very big canvas and having to turn it into colour. I'd very nearly got her face right when I was asked to change her expression to make her happier. So I literally wiped the expression off her face (was it something I said?!) and tried to tickle a smile with my paintbrush. I had got a couple of smiling references but nothing very clear and the lovely thing about smiling is that it completely alters the muscle structure of the face: the eyes widen and narrow, the cheeks lift, the nose widens. the eyebrows lift and the mouth obviously changes shape. Everyone smiles differently and at one point she had a Mona Lisa wonky smile! Fortunately work on the dress was relatively straightforward and using ultramarine as the mid blue with touches of coeruleum with white scumbled over the highlights and putting a lovely pinky purple into the shadows seemed to work quite well. Subtle shades of blue were painted into the skintones where there might be a reflection from the fabric, again very tricky to judge without a colour reference. She does look prettier now she's smiling so I'm pleased. I'm now collapsed on the sofa eating Easter eggs to re-energise!! Happy Easter everyone.