Lace is a Bitch to Paint

Lace is a bitch to paint. There. I said it. I am not a fan but at the same time, I refuse to let the difficulty get the best of me. The latest painting that I am working on is a portrait of my grandmother walking with my father, who is eight in the picture. I can probably assume they are going to church, based on their clothing. My grandmother is wearing a shawl made of dark lace and it is not an easy thing to paint. Did I mention it is dark lace over a light dress? Even worse! If it was dark on dark, I would have to just worry about highlights and the details would be blended together with the underlying fabric. But when you have dark lace over a light, let's say white, dress, you have a lot more details to worry about. I like the challenge though, and I LOVE this photograph, so I will continue trying to make this work and look like actual lace. This is the very early stages of the painting and still needs a ton of work. It's mostly underpainting still. I'm also not sure which series this will be for, which will determine whether I cover the eyes or not.

My grandmother has a VERY intense look on her face. I wonder if someone snapped her picture when she was deep in thought or just upset that her picture was being taken. Hmmm.