Here's a painting I did for my mom for christmas! She wanted something like one of my old academic drapery studies and life paintings, but with the facial features being more like hers. So I sought out a fantastic stock photo (I have no working digital camera) and changed the facial structure and body type to be more like my mom's. I'll admit, it really doesn't look much like her, I'll have to work more in likeness in portraits.

This piece is a partial paintover! That means that in the very beginning stages, I drew over the original stock photo to get the drapery and basic anatomy correct. After the sketch was done, I took the reference out of the equation and painted based off my own knowledge. There is more on my process in my Tumblr - http://tumblr.com/Zfs0hxDuyOpo

The original stock photo is by Lockstock on deviantart, part of her "Dark Drapery Three" series which can be found here - http://lockstock.deviantart.com/art/Dark-Drapery-pack-three-82966447 It took a little digging to be sure, but I found that this sort of use is not against her rules. For the most part this is a gift that doubles as an academic study for me.

I feel it's important to say I do not use paintover techniques for commissions or other art. My usual use of reference is more like finding a group pf photos of what I want to draw, having them all in line of sight while drawing, but not copying from any one. Using what you see and learn from something to create a new image, if that makes sense!