Painting Children at the Beach

Sandy Summer (c) Mary Hubley

It's not easy to paint children

Children move around too much. They won't sit still. A minute just isn't enough. To paint a child, I combine color gestural studies with reference photos.

Reference Photos

I walk with my phone camera in hand. I take lots of shots. I followed this girl with my camera as she ran up and down the beach, picked up seashells, grabbed water in her bucket, dumped the water by her sand castle, and ran back into the water. I took about 30 snapshots.

When I got home, I chose the best snapshot to paint. This is the result.

Genre: Figure
Painting Name: Sandy Summer
Size: 8" x 8"
Media: Oil on Canvas


-- Mary Hubley