Pastel Portrait Suprize!

Starring my nephew, Hayden!

I have been working on these pastels for my mom and my sister's birthdays. You are aware of the first pastel, which I showed you the work in progress. Here it is complete:



My sister's pastel started as only a black and white charcoal. When I was near finished, it exploded itself into a pastel project. Because of this it became another belated gift (by 8 days), but I think maybe this made the suprize even more effective! In order to finish these projects in my goal time I worked late last night. I was so involved in the process that I also recieved my own suprize when I was getting ready for bed and saw myself in the mirror:



I don't know if you can tell to what extent, but the brown pastel is all over my face! This morning I worked on the pastels from 8-10:00am and then I drove to Dover to suprize my mom and sister with my presence and pastels!

Here is my sister's gift. It is from a photograph I took about a year and a half ago. The original photo was out of focus and Hayden had a pacifier covering a lot of his face. I had wanted to make it into a drawing since I photographed it. My sister had never even seen the original photo.



The visit made for a lovely Saint Patricks Day today! Hayden (now two) recognized himself and his mom in both images. He's my most honest critic!