Here is a crop of the painting I am working on, from a photo that I took of my work on October 30, 2025. This commissioned portrait is an ongoing project which I am hoping to wrap up in November. I am working from a photo taken during a trip to Disney last spring. I have been working on it a little at a time. On Oct. 30th, I cropped the photo of my work and sent it along as a "progress report"to the family, which was well received, I am happy to report. At this point I was working on the background, trying to suggest the castle that was in the family photo. And in the photo, the kids are wearing lots of Disney gear and I was trying to decide how much of it to include in the painting. (You can see the little Minnie Mouse ears roughed in on the little girls) The client seems happy with the painting so far, including the Disney gear, which makes sense because this a family memory of a specific time and a place that is special to them. For me, as with other portraits, this is a balancing act because I want my portraits to be "timeless". Which details of the background should I include? What should I edit out of simplify? I have done several other portraits in which the background or the pose, or the clothing details were very important to the client (ranging from sunglasses and motorcycle helmet to tuxedo and dance floor). So I my plan is to include "just enough" Disney gear in this portrait to evoke memories of time and place, but also create an image of these sisters and brothers that will stand the text of time.
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