For this artwork, I felt that it was vital to have both the parent and the child's hand in the frame. If I just depicted the baby/child's hand, it could get misconstrued as another childhood time period. With the inclusion of the parent's hand, it further sells the idea of parenthood.
I originally opted for a layout including a newborn. During the sketch and color blocking process, I realized that this was far too similar, regardless of composition, to the first piece. I scrapped the idea entirely. I started scanning the albums of family members, and found the perfect image: a mother, a father, and a daughter all playing in a beach's sandy shore. It was perfect. It had the vital interaction between the three subjects, the gentle gestures, and the childhood playfulness of being at the beach. |