These little boys are our Grandchildren. In this oil painting, they are four and ¾ and three. We had a lovely day together back in April 2025 which is when I took a series of photos of the children, including this one.

The boys climbed straight up the football goal which was very helpful as it provides a useful structure to the picture bringing the boys nearer to the camera.

There were a number of challenges to overcome in the painting of this portrait. The most important challenge was to make each boy look like himself. This was not particularly easy as their heads are not really that big, so there is little room for manoeuvre. To my credit, I persevered and tried again and again to get their faces right.

Fortunately, if you are painting in oils or acrylics, when you make a mistake you can easily paint it out and start again. However, oil paint can take anywhere from two weeks to a year to dry out! When you use a lot of white paint that takes the longest.

I enjoyed painting the red and black shoes the most. I was expecting the football goal to be difficult but compared to the boys’ faces, it wasn’t.

The photograph has depth (ie. background, middle ground and foreground) and this was important for the painting too. I originally painted green trees in the background but they were messy and did not add anything to the painting so I painted them out and painted the silhouettes of trees instead.

I am definitely going to paint my Grandchildren again. During Half term, they popped in to spend the day with me and, as children do, suddenly decided to hang upside down off the sofa rather like bats.