A new breakthrough

My name is Melissa and I\'m a purple-holic. What is the breakthrough you ask? Well, I realized that my favorite paintings I\'d completed all had 2 things in common: 1, I chose the color palette and individual pastels before I got started, and 2, I worked from a black and white photograph. In fact, I worked from FOUR photographs- 2 in color and 2 black and white. I liked the way the baby looked in one photo, and the way the grandma looked in the other, and putting them together was more complicated than I thought it would be. But the end result turned out exactly how I\'d hoped. The picture of the painting i uploaded is a little off (it was taken with my cell phone while my laptop is busted) but you get the idea. The purples are rich and varied, and there is just enough blue to balance the warm skin tones. For the first time I used a lot of green in the shadows of the skin and it worked rather nicely. I was very concerned this would make my baby look like an alien but after observing the skin tones used in some of my favorite paintings I though it was worth a shot. I deem it a success and will be adding this to my permanent collection. After all, it\'s my baby girl and my grandma!