Sketch for Alice

My dear friends asked me AGES AGO if I would paint portraits of their daughters.  I have avoided the task for many reasons.  Ostensibly I was too busy but in fact I was sure that I would botch it up: portraits are a weighty proposition.
Now that Alice is down on paper I feel relieved and happy.  Getting the sketch right is so important: it's where all the thinking goes.  Well, that's how it is for me.  Alice is a great animal lover: she has pictures of all sorts of wild animals next to her bed and is greeted by a huge poster of a gorilla every morning.  This composition was her wish, though the gorilla here has since become a baby version, and may well change again before we move on to the final work.  Her little sister Evie is next!  I'm sure that she will provide me with a challenge....