Painting Children: Lessons from Joan Walsh Anglund

SOLD In The Sand 2, 6 x 6 oil on canvas
by Mary Hubley

I remember reading in an article years ago about how difficult it is to follow a child long enough to draw him. In the article, which profiled one of my favorite childhood illustrators, Joan Walsh Anglund, she said that it was difficult for her to capture a child's features because they move too quickly. You can't get a child to pose. Before you even draw your first line, the child has moved on as fast as a rolling wave. Joan said that that's why she never drew childrens' actual facial features -- thus, her trademark emerged as children with just a couple of eyes, no nose or mouth.

From A Friend is Someone
Who Likes You,
by Joan Walsh Anglund

My style is much different from Joan's, as I often include facial features (although I love my paintings where the child is turned or has her head down). I guess my point is that artists who do the same subject matter face similar challenges, whether illustrating children for books or selling our paintings of children in galleries -- children as subjects just don't lend themselves to long plein air work lasting all afternoon.