The Story Behind the Portrait "When I Was Pretty" - Part II

The same evening she approached me about her portrait,  we went to her house and searched  through old photo albums looking for a  picture of her when she was around 19. Most of the photos were at the wrong age or were too distant to get a clear image of her face. Finally I came across this strip of two pictures she took of herself in a photo booth. They were small, only about 1inch by 1inch, but they were clear,and of the right age. As the ideas for the portrait  were  working out in my mind, the one looking forward closely matched my memory of that moment and seemed right for the portrait.
We talked about what media I would use. She wanted color but was unsure of paint or pastel. I told her about my most recent work in pastel in a 19 inch by 25 inch format. She sounded excited in the possibilities of pastels and I left that evening with the two picture photo booth  snapshot and a new commission.


The next day I started working on the drawing. The first thing I did was take photos of the snapshots so that I could enlarge them on my computer. I would then work from the computer image rather than directly from the photo.

Then I took out some drawing paper to work out ideas for the design of the drawing. I wanted to depict the setting of my cousin standing in the loft, but in my first sketches, the image of her was too small to show her clearly, and I wanted to emphasize the beauty of the woman as well as the setting.
My solution to the problem was to show her twice, once in the setting of the loft at the lake house, and an overlapping close up of  her from the same image.

Once I decided on the design, I began to gather the different elements of the drawing together. I wanted the drawing to have a feeling of warmth  so I chose to use red colored paper. Then I photographed the lake house from the view entering the front door. The cottage has changed a lot sense then, two additions have been built, the kitchen has been rearranged, and the loft is now enclosed, but  the photo still helped get
the light and perspective right.
I then photographed a model posing beside a window lifting her shirt in the same pose and the same lighting as I envisioned the drawing. Putting it all together on my computer, snapshot, photo of the cottage, pictures of the model, I worked from the computer to combine all the elements with red paper and pastels.

I presented the drawing to my cousin a week later matted and framed. Tears came to her eyes as she gave me a hug," It's beautiful David. I love the colors. I really was pretty wasn't I."