She was a bit of a challenge because I was sorting out her likeness from multiple reference photos. I wasn’t sure of her expression—in general, I try to avoid toothy smiles, but it didn’t seem to work to have her with a closed mouth. I struggled with her for a little while deciding which way to go. In the first image, those dark marks on her right arm indicated that I was figuring out how the shadow from her hair should be placed. I tried to anticipate the right combination of value and color from the beginning, but I was wrong and had to make changes later on.

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About the Artist
Garth Herrick was a semifinalist in the Smithsonian Institution’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition and was awarded a certificate of excellence by the Portrait Society of America at their 2006 International Portrait Competition. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he received the William Emlen Cresson Memorial Traveling Scholarship, the Stewardson Prize, and the Thouron Prize. Herrick’s commissions include portraits of eight notable federal judges, a governor, a mayor and numerous cultural, educational, and business leaders. His work hangs in a number of public, corporate, and private collections. View his work at www.garthherrick.com.