Wow, it HAS been a while since I submitted anything... went looking for the "Traditional" gallery section and got lost!

Anyway, this is my first attempt (ever) at painting a portrait.

There's a lot wrong with it and the lips gave me more trouble than I had anticipated, but overall I'm quite pleased. There's always things that we'd do differently if we repeated ourselves, but I'd rather apply the learnt lessons to whatever comes next.

I also learned a valuable lesson that being able to sketch a person's portrait (as I did with this one) doesn't mean that you're able to paint it.

Plus, I learned that it's best to have the right colours on hand as I ended up painting this with five colours... where another four or five shades would have been hugely beneficial...

... and no, I don't mix colours because I can never replicate the original mix and always run out before I'm finished.

I suppose there's a number of lessons to be learned with each attempt at anything.

Amongst all the sketches in my little sketch-book, this one was probably the simplest... hence it becoming my first attempt. Here's hoping that I can apply a steady learning/difficulty curve through the rest of my book!

The colours are almost spot on in this photo, but as always there is a little bit of deviation from the original.

I also filmed the process for this painting and will be uploading it to YouTube sometime soon... when I do I'll put the link in here and in my journal so keep an eye out for that if you're interested.

(video is now uploaded here: [link])

30" x 40" (76.2 x 101.6cm)
acrylic and house paint on canvas