Laura lives far away so I only see her once or twice a year. I finally painted her. Previously I posted a progress shot in which I’d tried a maddeningly precision but visually interesting technique where I painted her face all one color then shaded by lightening some areas with a flat brush to lift off paint. I passed the brush over the area being lightened, wiped the brush on a cloth, and thereby  shaded – the darker spots kept the paint and the lighter spots kept the canvas. Medium tones had thinner paint.

Here, I’ve painted in clothing details, adding a hat. Her hair is now a more accurate wispy blonde. She’s nearly age eight.