Painting perfection ...

For 7 years, the boys have been on our mantle.  Poor Libby hardly even has any photos up around our house, much less a presence above the fire place.  It has bothered me [and I'm quite certain her, too] pretty much since the day she was born.  I attempted to paint a picture of the 3 kids a few years ago, but I couldn't make it work.  Maybe some day I'll try & fix it to completion.

Until then, I just decided to start from scratch.  With one that is just Libby.  It is an 11x14 & still a work in progress.  When it's done, it'll get framed & I hope to display her with her brothers on the mantle.  Her daddy saw the painting the other day & said [as he squeezed her tight] "but how do you capture such perfect beauty?"  I have to agree ... I have my work cut out for me.  One wrong move ... and it goes from looking like Libby, to a perfect stranger.  The key is just making sure I have Libby staring back at me. :)  I worked on it for 6-7 hours on Tuesday.  By the end of the day, it didn't look like her at all.  She had even lost her baby face ... and suddenly the painting looked like that of a 14 year old.  So I took a break for 2 days.  I couldn't look at it until this afternoon - with fresh eyes.  Then I got out my Jonas Brothers pencil & tweaked the face 'til it looked like Libby again.  :)

P.S. Libby has already protested the change I made to the top she has on.  :)  I can tell that's going to be a fight ... just like her outfits in real life.