She has an incredible smile, wide and confident, obviously thrilled with life. Capturing that was my top priority!

Her heritage is middle eastern, and I wanted to acknowledge where she came from while celebrating what she loves.

The dream moves into the reality of how far she’s come, and the arid red mountains she loves!

Progress Pics

Hand painted in Rebelle 7 Pro on a Surface Pro 8 (i7, 16gb RAM) with Slim Pen 2.

I start a portrait with the eyes, and since I wanted to capture her brilliant smile, I did that too! After getting those mostly right, I moved on to blocking in the values on her face and then framing it with her hair.

I needed to modify her posture a bit from the reference and it took some working out.

I studied a lot of middle eastern pattern art and spent a long time working out how to incorporate the cactus she loves. This flower is in the final piece, but ended up hidden behind her.

Finally worked out how I wanted the tile design to flow into a more realistic style, showing the journey she’s made!