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The original photo was sent to me by a family member to restore and reprint. It was taken over 25 years ago and had seen better days. The 35mm colour photo was shot on a compact film camera with built in flash. After scanning, enlarging and restoring we thought it was a good idea to produce two paintings.
Creating two 50cm x 70cm paintings from such a small reference image had its problems. Both brothers where on the same picture but quite small in the 'frame'. Even though it was shot with the internal flash there was head movement leading to a blurring effect and distortion in the width of the eyes, nose and cheeks. This effect couldn't be seen on the original pic but the bigger the image was made the clearer the problem became.
Although the photo had been restored there isn't anything you can do about adding more detail. The bigger the image, the less detail there is to see. Both were painted in a looser style than normal and the viewing distance makes all the difference ie the further away you see 'things' the more your mind fills in the blanks.
