Painting Portraits of Children

Book excerpt: Painting a portrait of a child is one of the most complex challenges an artist will face. In this detailed and practical book, Simon Davis opens up his studio and explains his approach. As one of the country's leading portrait painters, he gives a unique insight into how to render a sympathetic portrait in oils, which avoids sentimentality and captures the essence of a child. Topics covered include the importance of composition and balance, tonality and palette, atmosphere and advice on the complete process, from first ideas to putting down the paintbrush. There are step-by-step examples of a range of children, including different ages, backgrounds and groups and an interview with fellow Royal Society of Portrait Painters artist Andrew James. This unique account of painting thoughtful, intelligent and honest portraits of children will be of great interest to portrait painters and anyone commissioning a portrait. Fully illustrated with 134 colour photographs.