Besides a change of hairdo for Mom, the changes here are all in the background: the tipped perspective straightened, and the clutter eliminated. Also, to make the room more cozy for baby, a little architectural remodeling: the back wall has been moved closer to the figures, which makes the scene more intimate.

The original photo is faded and grainy, plus the groom's face is lost in the shadows, making it impossible to paint an accurate portrait. So his facial features were borrowed from another photograph! To avoid nostalgia and create vibrant immediacy,  the midcentury colors had to be drawn from the imagination, as did the reflections in the window.

The clients requested that the parking lot be eliminated, which led to rearranging of the greenery, simplification of the architectural form, and a few crucial pops of red in the facade. Another change was cooling off the sidewalk to make the skin tone of the little girl look even warmer and more vibrant. And I tidied up her pigtail!

The goal here was to play with the source photo rather than depict it realistically: a plump and rosy baby surrounded by a minimalistic cartoon world. The baby's pouty pink lips are exaggerated, while his shirt is sketched only in white lines. The background is reduced to a few blue lines representing the legs and hands of the figure holding the baby.

A tighter crop draws the viewer closer to this scene of sibling affection, plus it eliminates the ice pack the little girl was using to deal with a bloody nose. Colors are depicted fairly faithfully, although the necklace becomes a welcome pop of blue. Architectural background is simplified, while detail in clothing is carefully preserved.

Here a low-light and fairly blurry source photo is inspiration for a theatrical painting. Colors are invented to create a sense of drama: purple shadows the sidewalk and glows mysteriously in the spaces between the trees. The figures are treated fairly realistically, but have a slightly unreal quality, like actors upon the stage.