Family portraits

I really liked doing the pastel portrait of Jonathan, so I decided to try it again, this time with my friend's family of four kids.  I learned that freckles are pretty tricky, red hair is really fun - so many colors in it, and that it is hard to get skin tone to match from one portrait to another. It is also interesting to draw people from the same family - I see patterns in features - like the eyes or noses are similar, or they all have a thin upper lip, or something like that. 

 I was originally going to have them on a blank background, but the paper I chose was a tan color, and it didn't allow the faces to stand out much. The skin kind of blended in. So, because these were from outdoor portraits, I put in a green, nature-ish kind of background, again having a hard time getting it to match from one portrait to the next.

 But, all in all,  I really like the portraits.  I think they look pretty close to the actual kids (I hope so) and I feel like I learned a lot along the way.  The baby is the youngest child I have drawn so far, and that was a fun new challenge.