Alla Prima Portrait: Stephanie (Oil, 20 x 16)

Stephanie is VAC portrait studio's regular model. I painted her twice before. She said she liked the portraits I had made of her but they both made her look stern. Kathy in our group shot out: "But you did look stern when she sat there." So today I told her I was going to paint her smiling and asked if she could crack a smile if I needed. She relied: "If you want me to smile, just stick out your index finger so that I know." Therefore, each time when I was going to paint eyes, cheeks, mouth, etc., facial parts that were critical to a smiling face, I stuck out my index finger. That made many of us laugh. Anyway, I did make a smiling Stephanie today.

She wore this morning some kind of African costume I think with a cap that reminded of Rembrandt. It was very colorful and interesting to paint.