This is the first frontal portrait I’ve ever completed. I can thank France Van Stone for helping me improve my skills enough to do that. In the past I attempted a couple of portraits but they were so bad I threw them away before completion. I’ve bought books on the subject and read them cover to cover. I pretty much had let my left brain convince me I should stick to landscapes and such; you know, more forgiving subject matter. Ol’ lefty said I just didn’t have the eye, brain and hand coordination required to handle such challenges as portraits. Nor the patience.

I’m not saying that I have that coordination now either. But, it has improved enough to actually post the first frontal portrait I have actually completed, without shame or self-chastisement. I’m well aware the face is too long and the eyes are too close together. That is preventing a likeness from appearing from the marks. And as Sargent once said, ”A portrait is a painting with something wrong with the mouth”.

I have several hours in this because I did a lot of re-comparing at the end of each session, correcting observation errors that were correctable without having to start over. The afore mentioned errors being such that starting over would have been the only way to overcome them. In retrospect, I actually SHOULD have started over, correcting the major positioning and proportion errors first. Then, with a solid foundation, all the other stuff I fussed with would have properly fallen into place from the gitgo. Lessoned learned.

Admittedly, this was not an easy pose to tackle in the first place. I was just inspired by it and that helps to keep ones perseverance charged up as we all know.😉 So, I shall press on with honing my skills. It’s a lot of fun, feels good and each session proves to be a bit easier.👍 This practice of drawing and sketching, showing up at the page each day, is a good and noble endeavor; as only humans have been blessed with the ability.