Portrait painting of Liam

My son offered to sit for a portrait painting recently: “I’ll be your live model, Mummy! You can do a painting of me!”

He sat very diligently for 10 minutes, trying not to move a muscle:

Liam: the first 10 minutes

After a little break he sat for a further 5 minutes during which he was very interested in the painting process. He jumped out of his seat every few seconds to check the progress of the painting.

Liam after another 5 minutes

“When you look at me, Mummy, I make sure my eyes are looking in your eyes, because I like paintings where the people seem like they are looking at you.”

“Are you going to paint the chair? What about the window behind me? Does it matter where I put my hands? Will you be painting my hands?”

“When you look away, I wriggle around, then I sit very still again when you look back at me.”

“When are you going to add colour?”

We tried a further 10 minute session. Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of the painting at this stage but you can see it on this photo of my pinboard.

Liam after another 10 minutes

Liam was very restless during this session and wasn’t keen to sit any more, so I took a few photos of him and finished the portrait from the photos. This is after 2 more hours of painting…

Liam work in progress

I finished the picture after another hour or so. I feel as though his face is slightly too long or narrow … or something, but I still like the picture and Liam is very satisfied with the outcome!

Liam finished

My next challenge is to encourage my daughter to sit for me.