In the original photograph I was struck by the expression in the child's eyes, the Mona Lisa smile on her face, and her slightly hunched-over position. These elements asked to be developed and brought out, as what they suggested to me was a combination of innocence, shyness, a hint of magic, and the unknowable wisdom that is peculiar to children, and so these were the core features around which my concept of the painting was based.
The first step was to lift the girl from the grassy background and color correct to remove the sallowness caused by the reflected light of her green surroundings. The patch of light on her cheek, which was actually quite charming, was corrected with the clone tool to remove the narrow strip of shadow that ran through the middle, as this was distracting and almost suggestive of a scar.
After auditioning ten or twelve different backgrounds, ranging from waterlily ponds to castles to giant crayons, I finally chose a warm, color-filled, simple image that was a digital version of a muslin background. After bumping up the saturation to increase the fantasy element and balance the bright colors of the girl's dress, I dropped it in behind the child and then added light coming from the upper left corner to "explain" the light on her hair, cheek, shoulder, and dress.
Finally, using a variety of brushes and techniques, the painting was done by hand entirely in Photoshop. In the initial stages of painting, the hair, the eyes, the dress, the face, the arms and neck, and the background were each assigned a separate layer and were worked on individually, prior to all the components being united and painted as a whole. As with all of my work, layers and blend modes played an extensive part in this painting, and at its completion, the 300dpi 11x14" image consisted of 86 layers and was a file that weighed in at well over 1Gb. But I was very satisfied with the result.
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Copyright remains with the individual who created the original image.
