A Portrait to Celebrate Family

One of my clients in California recently welcomed a second baby into his family. To commemorate the moment, he commissioned me to create a family portrait. I documented the month-long process of creating the 10″x15″ paper collage by taking snapshots along the way.

Some thumbnails as I played with different arrangements of the four figures

For the setting I took inspiration from Grand View Park in San Francisco. Foreground looks a bit empty here though…

I remember all these poppies from my San Francisco visit: big red ones, small warm yellow ones. Kinda took artistic license, mixing them up and putting them next to a great shady tree—I don’t think they’d grow together in real life, and believe they thrive in open fields.

First thing I created was the tree because I love the marble print and amate bark paper.

As I cut and glue together small pieces, I have to keep them in a box or else they get lost among ALL the papers I often have on my work table.

This part was fun, assembling a patchwork of greens.

This was the part I dreaded the most. Itty bitty bits and sloppy perspective. Took me days 😑

Ooooo finally coming together…

Itsy bitsy bridge. Don’t sneeze.

I changed the shirts a few times on the family before deciding on the final patterns. I had to be sure that they contrasted each other so you could easily read each family member, and that they complemented the environment, and that I just liked them period.