Portrait Painting

Frank, as a portrait it works very well. The mouth stops it from catching a perfect likeness but she has a presence - forget about the photo. I’m hovering towards a portrait…and I know who it will be. The question is, do I just enjoy the “ doing” or do I get exasperated when I go for the likeness? We’ll see.

Well done, young sir.  The only way to get good with portraits - or at least, to get a likeness, is to keep doing the beasts: get friends to sit for you (really is easier than self-portraiture - we know ourselves too well, or think we do, and although we have the patience to sit that others might not have, it really is hard work); study other people's portraits; buy a book or two, and study videos; work from plaster casts if you can, just to get the weight of the head and its depth and height broadly right; forget those rigid measurements we were all told about in school - they led me right up the garden path, until I noticed I was basically painting eggs.....  And - take your time, and frequent breaks.   This advice is so easy to give!  All I've got to do now is take it....  I did find that using the Zorn palette helped me a lot: much less to have to worry about.