The inspiration for this portrait came from a photo I took of Alice with my cell phone in an olive grove. I liked the backlighting and the natural background.
Concerning the composition: I found a lovely picture of a flowering fuschia, and mixed it with the natural elements in the photo. Then I added the flower and butterfly on the bottom left.
Technique: I painted the picture first in acrylic, and took all the time I needed playing with the composition. The face is painted in shades of green in preparation for the warm glazes which will come later. Then I laid on a transparent white veil with an oil/glue/varnish emulsion and continued the painting in oil. To get the subtle skin tones and intense rose colors, a number of glazes were necessary, with scumbled whites in between.
The finished painting:
The acrylic underpainting:
The original photo of Alice:
The flowering fuschias: