WATERCOLOR BABIES

Well, I just made a couple of babies this week. A commission that was meant as a mother's day present to his wife by my good friend and colleague at Kodak. As we all know, and have experienced in "other" ways, making babies takes a lot of hard work and preparation(!) Two separate solo shots of each baby were used and combined into this one painting. I made several pencil sketches and color tests before I started with the actual one. You will see the color studies I did where I painted the clothes as is and I felt that it was commanding too much attention. So I thought of keeping their clothes "neutral" and splashing the color as the background instead. Where the colors intersect is where their separate identities become that special bond only shared between a brother and a sister, being born at almost the same time.

  

A close up shot of the mouth. Painting babies requires a great deal of concentration and a lot of pigment to water control. It's just not the same as painting an apple.

 

I used to think that babies were just...pink. But they are also blue, purple, yellow, brown and green in very subtle gradations. The white you see is the color of the actual paper. Those have been carefully left out and painted around.