Portrait Practice

I've been obsessing about portraits this week.  After several failed self portrait attempts I decided to paint my baby brother!

I'm not exactly sure how long it took me. I gave myself the day from about 12 pm to paint it but had to leave for a few hours to meet my Professional Project team.  Regardless, I think it turned out alright.  I'm fairly pleased with the amount of time it took as once again my speed is noticeably improving. 

I usually use grids as a crutch when painting portraits but this time I was brave.  I read somewhere that instead of "obsessing about whether the eyes are the correct distance apart"  (I'm guilty of obsessing about measurement when it comes to portraiture) you should focus on expressing the subject through line, tone and colour.  I'm quite proud that I ditched my obsessive ways and there's still a resemblance to the subject.  It made the painting a whole lot more fun to do too.

However some parts are still wonky - the eyes seem a tad squint and the face looks too rounded, for instance -  and my brush strokes are very flat, as is the tone (although I was using a dull webcam photo for reference I guess.)  If I'd had more time I would have neatened everything up a lot more - add more detail to the shirt, ears and hair in particular.

All in all, I still have a long way to go with portraiture I just need to practice, practice, practice!