I don’t do commissions especially from photographs but…

I made an exception in this case…

And I’m not now sure why! But anyway, I looked at the photo and made a couple of charcoal sketches and centralised the head within the picture which, as far as I’m concerned, is the part that matters most…

And then proceeded to paint. I have never seen the model in real life. All I have to go on is this photograph. I would have preferred a more serious pose which I think (although Franz Hals might not have agreed!) is more fitting: human dignity and all that…

So I roughed in the contours and forms as best I could (by the way, not being able to see stuff in the round does make an enormous difference…) and arrived at this initial study:

Then I left this to dry for a few weeks. (By the way, I should mention that I originally worked on two canvases and this one turned out better than the other so I kept this one and abandoned the other.)

As the oil paint was sufficiently dry I began work again wanting to finish the piece…

Even though I signed it I was not fully happy with it and did some more work which resulted in this:

For me, bearing in mind the limitations previously mentioned, (specifically, never having seen the person in the flesh,) this is about the best I could do.

For me this is a problem, this copying of photographs by hand. And that is why I don’t do commissions.

If anybody has any constructive criticism (nothing petty please) to give, I would appreciate hearing it. Thanks! Peter