New portrait - first one in watercolour

Happy first attempt and yes there are a few anatomical issues..... But please , my biggest comment would to give a body or at least shoulders not a head floating in space , it's a bit spooky. Portraits need to be attached to something, a few brush strokes suggesting form and shape.

So far, he has a young man's head on an old man's neck - I think I'd soften those rather hard lines in the neck that look rather like the sort of connective tissue, sinews and ligaments you get in the necks of old chaps like me: young men's necks are smoother, and of course if would taper outwards at the bottom towards the shoulders: I realize you haven't really started on the neck yet, but it is a bit distracting as it's painted at the moment. It does help if, at least to some extent, you can work on all parts of an image simultaneously, ie bring it all to about the same stage of development so that bits don't jump out at you which you then have to adjust subsequently. The face itself - yes, the ear is set a bit low; ears grow as you age, but for a man of this age the top of the ear would normally be roughly in line with the corner of the eye, and the base of it roughly in line with the tip of the nose. Mouths are difficult - I'm not sure that it's too straight, but the cupid's bow he has on his upper lip, the the fuller part of the upper lip in those of us without one, will be in line with the septum - and therefore the groove that, more or less noticeably, descends from it: in this study, the mouth is very slightly offset to his left (our right). It's very difficult to judge this: some get round it by drawing an imaginary, or actual, line through the head: between the eyebrows, along the nose, through the dimple (there are proper words for these things that I can't think of) on the upper lip, and bisecting the chin. That helps to get the features in line. The eyes are a bit too long, and rather excessively pointed in the left eye at its inner point, where it abuts the nose: this does vary a lot between individuals though, but you tend to see a little of the pink membrane at the corner (you have shown it, but I still think the inner eye is a bit too sharp and black). He's got a bit of a weird beard, but then - presumably he really has! Heads aren't easy - portraiture is the most difficult thing you can do, and watercolour portraiture is the most difficult of all: so don't think the above is trying to take your painting to bits, it's a highly creditable work, you have caught a real character - a believable person: and that's an achievement. Don't forget - any fool can criticize, and most do .... http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

Good effort so far. Minor tweaks are needed that's all. Once you get the shoulders in you can rework (not being a user of watercolours I will not know if possible)...

Yes, you can re-work by lifting out paint with a damp brush: or even by applying a little opaque gouache, although than can go wrong. It's amazing actually what you CAN do to change a watercolour, provided you haven't made the classic error of using either a too soft pencil, which then sullies the paint, or a too hard one, which indents the paper. Neither of which errors Dawn FH has committed. http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk