[Karin Wells]

For some goofy reason, I like this photo...but not quite well enough to paint it. Sadly, I'm sure that this child would someday be teased and embarassed by that expression.

You lucked out shooting this outdoors! You had enough "white dress" to act as a reflector so your shadows wouldn't be harsh. I suppose the question would be, would you have enough light/shadow information in the dress to paint it convincingly. By the way, that dress and hairbow could make the painting - nice choices! (Even that hair would be interesting to paint...)

The part of the picture that does not work is that the "tucked under" leg does not "explain itself" (i.e., it really does not look like a leg). You could overcome this by putting it in shadow.

In general, in order to get more colors and interesting shapes into a painting, you can add colored bows/ornaments to the dress and hair. You can include a hat in the background with bows, flowers and/or ribbons too.

When you are photographing a small child on the ground, you need to be low enough so that you aren't shooting down on top of their head and losing part of the face. I like to aim my lens at slightly above their eye level...and that means crawling around on the ground too (ugh), unless you elevate the child.

Let's see your other photograph before you plan another photo shoot.