They say that painting portraits is one of the most difficult tasks for the painter, in fact J. S. Sargent (one of my favorite painters) said "Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend" With that in mind I would like to share with you the last few friends I've lost

These two paintings were actually supposed to be only one, our model turned out to be a little bit too much of a mover for me, I decided to do seperate paintings over the 2 3-hours live sessions from different vantage points.
This is a 3 hour 16X20 Oil painting from life

This next particular portrait was interesting in that I was facing directly into the spotlight, giving me an interesting lighting setup, as well as forcing me to squint even more than I normally do while painting. This is another 3 hour 16X20 Oil painting