Please help - watercolour portrait!

Yes, I thought that when I saw it enlarged, as it appeared here. In the latter case, it's a (cleverly done) example of the symbolic use of a device to convey something we understand as reality (Yia's painting is of course far more intensely real, and less loose). Which does rather show how complicated this actually is. I note also that the left eye in the Clifton painting looks dead by comparison to the right (his left eye, that is, not the eye on the left of the painting). The first is the example to which I'd want to aim; I think I might believe I'd got away with it if I'd painted the second.... provided you weren't around tot ell me otherwise, anyway! You can see why I normally paint landscapes, perhaps. http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk

One more - this is a portrait of Alexander Hamilton, of the USA's founding fathers, currently spinning in his grave but we mustn't upset Syd..... Notice there are highlights, but not the dread white dot bang in the centre of the pupil (by the way, I know I've made this mistake myself in portrait sketches = but if I'd dun it proper, I like to think I wouldn't. And anyway, tee hee, none of you will know!) This is of course an oil portrait. http://www.isleofwightlandscapes.net http://www.wightpaint.blogspot.co.uk