Katie Lavin, 12" x 12", oil on linen

At first I thought about painting Katie in profile, viewing her from the extreme right side. But I thought that against the dark background on her right side, the painting might turn out too harsh. So I moved a little the left to make it a bit off-profile, where the tip of her nose would barely break the contour of her right cheek.

I wanted to create a mood that would be lively and bright but also gentle and calm. To accentuate her fair and warm skin color I took advantage of the light green background. But I decided to alter it somewhat to give a feeling of the outdoors, as if she was in a deep but bright forest.

Painting her large earring was fun to do. I just had to be careful not to let it overtake her.