Rachael

When doing a portrait you should try to avoid showing the teeth, as they are very difficult to achieve accurately. Very few portrait artists do teeth. May I suggest a technique which would really help proportion. Enlarge the photograph and place a grid over it. If you don't have a device on your computer to do this, you can use tracing paper. You can then draw onto your surface using the squares in the grid to guide your drawing. You will instantly see the increased accuracy of your drawing. I look forward to seeing another portrait from you on this site. Wishing you good luck & happy painting.

Thanks Carol for those tips. I'll give it a go D

Sorry Carole, I missed your E D

Well done keep going David

I made a few comments on the later posting, so won't repeat them all. If you were aiming for a copy of the photograph, rather than working from life (which would always be preferable) then you'll see that the darks in the face have tended to turn into lines - and you've opened the eyes up, which is what is giving you the problem with proportions when comparing with the photo. Rachael is rather fuller-faced - trouble probably is that you know her too well, and have applied your knowledge (or assumptions) about the way she really looks over the impression you got from the image. This is what we nearly all do when trying to draw or paint people very close to us. I itch to approach your painting with a bit of darker paint on a fine brush, just to put a touch under the top lip and help push the teeth back a bit - they ARE hard to paint convincingly, in any medium: especially watercolour. But - you're getting there.

Hi David... I think you could not have tried harder... If I could be next to you hen you paint I could help... but here goes, You will find that painting a picture of a loved one is very hard because you have saved memories of that face... You must only look at that picture with "lines and shapes and tone"... if you look at your photo wou will see almost no whites in her eyes....so you must only put what you see, not what you know.... The tone on her face is not matched to the tone I see.... mix what you see not what you know... why does one see white on her lower teeth? Same again.... I hope you are getting the idea and I do not sound harsh? If I was beside you I would keep asking you "where did you see that?" and you would tell me "its not there" and you would alter the pic.. I know you would love to do better, we all want that, so focus hard on what you see and not what you know... Best of luck, Guy