Finished Elora Painting - Draw Paint Academy

I forgot to mention that I finished the Elora painting a few months ago. I was going to take you step by step through the process but got carried away in the painting, as I often do.

This was one of my more challenging paintings. Portraits are hard by nature, but portraits of your daughter are particularly unforgiving. I could feel even the slightest deviation from her appearance and character. Not to mention I’m still fairly new to portraits. Landscapes are more of my comfort zone. But it’s important to branch out from time to time.

Reflected light and color in the shadows are key elements of the painting. Elora is mostly in shadow from direct sunlight, but she is being hit with cool ambient light from the open sky and warm reflected light bouncing up from the sand and off her clothes. I needed to convey this sense of light without compromising the integrity of the shadows (the shadows must always appear as shadows). It was a careful balance, particularly around her face. If I made the colors of her cheeks just a bit too light, the area wouldn’t read as a shadow. And if I made them just a bit too dark, the area would look flat and lifeless. I had to do a fair bit of back and forth to get it right (or close enough).

I tried to channel inspiration from Joaquin Sorolla’s beach paintings. He was a master of this stuff. The shadows in his beach paintings are full of rich, luscious color. He was so good that it almost felt foolish to use him for inspiration.

Overall I’m happy with how it turned out. I have a few nitpicky things, but sometimes you just need to give yourself a pat on the back and move on to the next painting. It will never be perfect!

Most importantly, it looks like Elora. If it didn’t, it would have been a failure even if it were rendered with Sorolla’s hand himself.

You can see it here plus a few close-ups. I also filmed this one and will publish a timelapse when I get a chance.