Ray Kirkham Full Face

The face is arresting; perhaps look again at the line between the lips, the contrast between those eyebrows and the pure white of the hair, and the sketchy treatment of the jacket and scarf; you have real ability, but just need to finish things off a little better to complement the strength of the faces in your portraits. You have an impressive range of models .... strong characters all, and I do like your use of colour in flesh - although bear in mind that the older we get the more colour fades to more pastel shades in comparison with our surroundings. I think this painting might have been transformed by strong, sharp lines/strokes of the brush in the places where cloth comes into contact with flesh, and in contact with other cloth.... in this case, I would like a strong dark in the sweep of collar against cravat, on the right (as we see it). But I think on the whole you've made huge progress lately and I do hope you keep painting, and be brave!