Family joy at portrait of fallen war hero

There was one lingering thought on Marcus Wills' mind when two grieving parents asked him to paint a portrait of their dead son: what if they hate it?

But Mr Wills, an Archibald Prize-winning artist, need not have worried.

"I'm absolutely stoked with it," Doug Baird said at the portrait unveiling at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Tuesday.

His son, Cameron Baird, a former AFL star turned soldier, was killed in Afghanistan in 2013 and was awarded the Victoria Cross a year later.

"Cameron was very respectful of everybody and an extremely humble person," Mr Baird said.

"That's why I think his team loved him and respected him so much, but he really loved them back."

The portrait depicts the soldier in the pre-dawn light of Afghanistan, waiting for helicopter extraction with three teammates in the background.

For Mr Wills, it was a year-long process to capture the essence of a man he had never met.

"Normally if you make a portrait of someone, you get to meet them and speak to them and see how they act or how they walk," he said.

"With this I wasn't trying to make something unique. I was just trying to get something that looked like Cam."

The artist spoke to the soldier's family, friends and colleagues and analysed old pictures of Mr Baird.

The painting is the only portrait in the Australian War Memorial that depicts a soldier with other teammates in the background, which Mr Baird said perfectly reflected his son.

"This is an action portrait and I think it just tells the whole story as we know it to be," he said.

During the unveiling at the war memorial, Mr Baird struggled to contain his emotions as he thanked the artist for the portrait.

Governor-General David Hurley and his wife Linda also attended the unveiling ceremony, thanking the family for their service.

"It's moments like this that will be in our lives and in their hearts forever," he said.

"They gave their tomorrow so we can have our today."

The painting will be a permanent feature of the war memorial.