Some Portraits

I had several portrait commissions last week. I usually try to do portraits only from life since that seems to give an ineffable quality that doesn't come from copying a photograph. Plus it's so much more fun, as copying is such a bore. However, when the subject has a hard time sitting still it can be a real challenge to get all the features situated properly on the head. Also most people can't hold a pleasant expression for the length of time it takes for me to paint them so the portraits can have an uncharacteristically grim demeanor. I used a photo to do the portrait of the two men, Bob and Dana, because of the extra complication of posing the two of them together. The two women were done in single sittings of about two hours, with plenty of breaks.