Christmas Drawings

Last year, you may recall that I posted some of my portfolio drawings, including two of Joseph's nieces. I drew their portraits for Christmas gift in 2004, using some photos I'd taken of them during a visit the previous summer:

Sadie

Jordan

Keep in mind that these were drawn on very textured paper which really doesn't scan well, plus the colors are totally wrong in the copy. Too bad I don't have the originals anymore, huh? Anyway, since that time, Jordan and Sadie now have two younger sisters, and their parents had expressed interest in having drawings done of the other two girls. So this year for Christmas, that is what we are giving them.
The only pictures I have of the girls are some Easter pictures of them all together, but I had fun coming up with fun backgrounds for each girl that would match the outdoor theme of the previous two drawings.
For this first one, I was imitating the nice background from one of the pieces in the Portrait Series I finished last month. I didn't actually look at it (which I probably should have) but I decided to add some blue at the top to hint at a sky. I'm not sure if it works, but the colors look nice with her eyes and dress:

Becca

For the second daughter, I wasn't sure what to do. The green color wouldn't really go with her eyes or dress, so I started out just doing a vague purple background, with the idea of doing some kind of indistinct hill, similar to that behind Jordan in the first portrait.
At the last minute, I decided to have some more fun with it. I went online and found some different sunrise photos that had the colors I wanted to use, and I found a few references of tree silhouettes. I knew that most people might not want something like this hanging on their wall, finding it too distracting from the face, but I didn't think Joseph's family would mind:

Gabrielle

I like how both of these turned out; the first one will be a great wall portrait, and I love the illustrative quality of the second. They'll go well with the others on the wall, because the originals both had strong purple and green shades.
In a lot of ways, I feel these are much better that the first two; the paper I used is more conducive to my drawing style, and it helps that I just finished so many childrens' portraits so I have had more practice lately. The first two were done after a long absence from drawing anything of the kind.
I hope they like them! I am sending these already framed, because I'm afraid that if I don't, they'll get ruined or lost before they make it on the wall.