"Our Precious Juel" process

Here's the process I went through to complete my latest project titled, "Our Precious Juel." This project was commissioned by a wonderful lady who wanted a special and unique portrait of her daughter who passed away in 2008. I went to work right away on some sketches for the layout because I wanted the entire piece, including the frame, to have an other than traditional shape. So here's what I came up with:

Because of the circumstances I needed to work from some challenging photos--so I felt it necessary to do quite a few studies including this sketch...

I also did some oil sketches to figure out the colors and values of the face in the main panel...

I then completed a half-size oil study of the complete piece...

I put together a jig for the panels to get the proper spacing between the panels and then drew in the top and bottom arches.

after that I started work on the final piece...

the linen panels I'm using are from New Traditions in Ogden, UT...

and roughly six months later....the final piece. 40" x 37".

The frame makes the entire piece, Rett Ashby built this frame and he did an amazing job! It becomes part of the artwork...