Update: commissioned family portrait painting

I took the week off from my normal work at Donna Downey Studio to finish a very important project.  My Aunt and Uncle commissioned me many months ago to paint their family portrait 5 feet tall x 4 feet wide. Acrylic on panel.  This project has been a joyful challenge.  One of the hardest things in the world for me to paint are people I know, let alone family. The reason it is so hard is because I really notice the mistakes and oddities about each part of the painting.  If it were a stranger, I probably would have finished this in a month and moved on. maybe... I really don't know about that when I think twice... But this painting deserved much more attention to detail.

Just to brief everyone on what is happening in the painting, My Uncle, my Cousin, and my Aunt are sitting on top of an overturned aluminum boat. The boat sits parallel to the water and there are some shrubs between the boat and the water.  The Sun is in the distance.

So here we are in progress: 

Since my last post on this I painted the faces, hair, and clothes.  

Only one set of hands are painted so far.

Notice the black boots on Aunt Trish, You will see them repainted as brown later.

Detail shot of my Aunt Trish

Christopher's hands are painted

black boots

painted a wedding ring onto my Uncle's left ring finger.

Brown Boots, as requested.
I noticed at this point that the shadow under Christopher's nose was too dark and therefor made him look as though his nose were longer than it really is.

Christopher's nose has been repainted so the shadow is not so dark.

Right now, I look at the painting and the shrubbery is very lopsided.  Only behind my Aunt, so I decided to even it out with some on the left.  After all in the photo I am working from there are small trees and shrubs behind them.  

Finished, but not yet approved.

I'll sign it when it is approved and repost a final image! Thanks for your interest in my painting process!