How to paint a young child and cuddly toys

This was a recent commission. The challenge was to paint in oils this little lad surrounded by his favourite toys. At just over a year old, he wasn't for sitting still, so I had to resort to large number of photographs to work from. There then followed lots of discussion with his parents to see which, if any, captured him best.
In the end it was a combination of numerous ones which seemed to work best.

The painting was done on MDF board to which I had applied a couple of coats of acrylic gesso. To speed the process, I did the underpainting in acrylics.

I start by simply drawing with a brush and burnt sienna.

I start to lay in blocks of colour.

I tentatively position the features. The cool green of the underpainting is a nice foil to the warmer flesh tones on top. These are white plus yellow ochre, cad red.

Still working in acrylics, I now pay more attention to achieving a likeness, checking proportions and angles.

The temptation is to continue fiddling with the head, but I must move other parts of the painting along.

e.g. clothes, toys, toolbox and garden background.

I am now working in oils, to get the subtlety and softness required.

I am now at the fine tuning stage. Watch this space to see the finished painting and have my techniques explained in greater detail.