The Process of Painting a Family Portrait

I was commissioned by a client in Europe to paint his family as a very special gift to his wife to celebrate the birth of their 4th child.  The brief was to do a 2m x 1.2m painting and to include hobbies, interests, bright colour and also the unborn child.  The client sent me 7 folders of photos which I spent many hours pouring over to get a sense of the family and form a composition.  I am very please with the result and the painting will become a wonderful heirloom for the family.  Here are some photographs of the painting at 3 stages.

Stage 2, Stage 1 is working out the composition

Stage 3, Casting the characters & directing their positions at the table

Stage 4, Composing the colours to use as I go along

Stage 5, after many weeks of work I have finally finished and am very happy with the painting