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Several months ago, I stumbled upon a charming photograph on a friend's Facebook page and immediately asked for permission to use it as a reference for a painting.  I received permission but let it sit for several months. The reference was a young girl wearing a pout and a crown made of clover blossoms.  

A few days ago, I pulled out the reference and began the painting, taking a few progress photos along the way. I always intend to take progress photos while I'm painting, but for some reason, I rarely follow through. My failure to follow through may be because I become to engrossed in the process--or maybe it's because I'm unhappy with the progress (or lack thereof) I'm making.

As often happens, I reached a point in the painting and stopped taking photographs. In the first step, I used burnt sienna thinned with mineral spirits to begin the drawing of the form, focusing primarily on the dark areas. The other pigments on my palette included permanent rose, cadmium red, yellow ocher, cadmium lemon, ultramarine blue, and white. 

As I progressed, I began applying pigment to various areas of the face.

This is the scary part of the portrait painting. It's almost like a jigsaw puzzle, trying to put the various pieces in place, using clues of light, dark, color, and shape.

I loved using the violets (mixed from ultramarine blue, permanent rose, and white) and burnt sienna in the darker areas of her hair and shadow areas.

I continued to create the forms of the face, moving the eyes and nose, widening the lips. I washed in a thin background and examined the finished painting.  But I realized I was a long way from finished! I did not have a good likeness of the reference, especially in that I had her looking about ten years too old! So I scraped the panel and tossed it aside. I even started a new painting of an entirely different subject matter on top of the original image of Clover Crown.  I had second thoughts about covering the scraped canvas with a different image, so I wiped it clean. Below is what remained. 

And then I began again on a new panel. I measured the placement of the facial features, comparing the measurements to the reference photo.  

And as usually happens, even fewer progress photos exist! Below is the finished product of the second attempt.

Who knows--there may even be a third attempt!  At the encouragement of my husband and an artist friend, I decided to keep the first, scraped attempt.  Even though the model looks different, the scraped image emerging from the canvas is somehow haunting, and her eyes appear to be daring the viewer, yet guarded. 

Happy painting!