Shania Twain step 1

First I want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year. The holidays were extremely hectic around here and things are just starting to settle down. To top everything off, I bit down on something Sunday and my front tooth broke completely off. Thank goodness for dentists and after a visit today I have a new tooth to fill the gap.

To fill you in on the background on this next painting, the Portrait Society of Canada is having a show in March in Toronto at the John B. Aird Gallery. The theme of the show is "The Art of Canadian Music". Members were asked to contact a Canadian musician for permission to paint their portrait for the show. I chose Shania Twain because were are both from Timmins and I admire her strength and determination. She was kind enough to allow me to paint her portrait for this show.

I finished drawing it out larger than life (2 x 3') and today finally started applying the first washes. I always start with the eyes because it brings the whole painting to life. It also lets me know if I have captured the likeness immediately. I tried to show the whole painting here but none of the light pencil lines showed up so here is a close up of the face so far. The whole painting shows her head and shoulders. I only have three weeks to get this done so the steps should come fairly quickly.