I've been working on this portrait for quite a while now. The client, the son of the woman in the portrait, lives near Charleston, S.C. and originally wanted a totally different painting. He wanted a drawing of his mother holding this crab but with the crab in full color and no background. She was in her late 80's and he wanted this particular photo of her from the 70's or 80's? She died unexpectedly after he commissioned me so I really didn't want to make her less important than the crab. I decided to paint all of it. She owned a seafood restaurant for most of her life and her son now wanted something to really say something about her and her life. The original photo was taken in her yard. Her son sent pictures of the bay and asked me to add it in the background. He also sent other photos of her smiling (which I used) because she was grimacing in the original. I still have a good bit to work on but it's finally to a point that I can see where it's going. The client also sent photos of jewelry that he wanted added so I put the rings on her fingers and still need to work on them . I should post the original photo I was working from - it was very faded, overexposed and pixelated. I hope he likes the way this is going.
