This is Shelby, a redheaded beauty. She has a gentle, joyous, somewhat shy soul to her. She loved to do art, when she wasn't busy reading a book. Her smile could warm up the room and touch your soul. I missed her when she moved away, and hope someday I will see her art. I painted this portrait using Painter Classic software, and just revised it using the updaed software, Painter IX and my wacom tablet & pen. I used mostly layers of airbrush strokes, pastles, and blending brushes. The hair took a while to build up all the tones, and then to add in all the strands, one at a time, and then blend them softly in areas to make it look more natural. Her freckles took awhile, soft small brush dabs of freckles, then softly dabbed to blend them for a smoother look. I am in the midst of revising some of the many youth portraits I've done. I did many before knowing how to do them with higher resolutions, and more detailed hair and eyes. Often I did them with a 72dpi resolution, as they printed nicely unless you went past an 8 by 10 inch print out. Had an older computer when I was teaching myself to digitally paint, and had to get a new computer & updated software, & books to figure out I was not doing as well as I could do. Trial and error, practice & upgrades are helping to improve my work. Hope I can always keep learning and get better as I go. This is now the third year almost since I started learning to do portraits.