Jamie

This certainly looks like him. I can see you are not afraid of colour. Look at the right side of his face the shadow. Work on this more. The shadow within the T shirt and the neck. The little indents either side of the lips Don't be afraid of colour. Experiment. I know you don't want to spoil which looks like is going to be a very good portrait. Just a little more charachter is needed.

I agree with Jeannette, a very promising portrait. It's the tonal values on the right hand side that might benefit from deepening. I think 'the look' is there, and you have the right depth in the hair. (I find squinting helps me to identify tonal depths). Hope this might help.

I agree with Jeannette I think you've caught him very well just be bolder with the shadows etc and maybe his bottom lip is fuller for longer if you get what I mean. A few more highlights on the right hand side of his hair (the left as we look at it ) as well would help, but I think this is turning into a really good portrait.

Thank you very much Jeannette, Lesley and Val, I really appreciate your comments. I am not really sure how to do the shadows, I mean colourwise. Under the flesh colour is a very deep blue and on top is a brown. I know in watercolour, shades of purple are normal but I don't know about pastel?

Funnily enough, I'm playing around with the same thing myself. I'm using a mixture off all sorts - blues, purples, greens, reds. I don't think it matters too much what the colour is as long as the value is right - and I would go too much by the colours in the photo anyway. It might pay you to choose a portrait painter on the site and ask a direct question. Good luck.

I found when doing my pastel portrait of a little boy (on my gallery portfolio) a darker flesh tone of pinky peach worked better than a purple for a child, Purple can make the skin look dirty unless it is featured as a main colour of the painting. I agree with above - the shadow needs deepening so that the light comes forward. The lightest part should be the nearest part (i.e. the end of the nose). It isn't easy when copying a photo as the photography light is different to the natural light. I find doing a sketch of the actual person in natural light helps as this gives a better understanding of where light falls naturally, so you can transfer this info to your painting and just use the photo as a reference. Hope this helps. It has the makings of a really good final portrait. jean