I just finished up this painting this morning, and I’m so happy with how it turned out! It’s Elinor and Marianne– The Dashwood sisters from Sense and Sensibility. I’m continuing my collection of Jane Austen characters (I’ve already got an “Emma” and “Lizzie” that you can now buy in my etsy shop.)
This was a fun painting to take on because the sisters are so different in personalities, but I wanted it to really look like ‘these girls are sisters.’ So often, poor Elinor gets painted as a plain wallflower and Marianne the startling and luscious beauty, but I wanted to do better for Elinor than that. I used the same color palette for their features, but tried to convey their different personalities in their expressions and body language.
While I was making the painting, I was showing some photos of the process on the Audrey Eclectic facebook page— here is the painting as it progressed:
What do you think? Can you tell who is Marianne and who is Elinor?
~H
Sleightholm Folk Art 
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