The Maori Madonna

I have been fortunate enough to be able to study under an exceptional Maori Artist and look at how she does her portraits which has been a wonderful experience. Today is my second day of working on this portrait of the Madonna. Normally my portraits do not fill up the entire canvas so this was a new learning curve for me. I have wanted to work with her for a while now to look especially at how she does her skin tones because I have struggled in my own work to not loose darker toned people in the painting.

Above pic shows stage two of working on the eyes - the last thing to do in the portrait.

At the end of Day 2 almost everything is almost completed. The eyes have been finished so that they are staring straight out at the viewer and follow the viewer around as they move from place to place - kind of like having a painting staring back at you. Baby's eyes are a little too large so will shrink them in the next working.