Thank you Carlos, Dan and Linda!

Carlos, I did work mostly from photos, as I usually do with this kind of commission, but Dr. Papadakis did pose for a 1-1/2 hour oil sketch, and that was very helpful when it came to putting down the correct color notes in the face and really being able to "read" the photo. You can read about the process and see the sketch in the WIP section.

Dan, what makes you say you are not an expert? Fake it till you make it. Seriously, you are as good as many experts and I value your opinion.

Linda, I appreciate your support. It means a lot. It's hard to pull all those things--vision, craftsmanship and feeling--together and keep them in mind while we are painting. We have to keep challenging and encouraging each other!

Alex, what can I say except congrats the hard work has brought its rewards and you truly deserve it. Well done! I am glad that you had the man sit for you and in this way you were able to capture the right hue within the values. Once more my sincere congratulations.

Terrific news, Alex! Will look forward to seeing you there.

This is a stunning portrait. The color is superb and lifelike, and the entire painting is a treatise on edge quality.

Wonderful work!

Mischa and Tom, thank you so much for your very generous comments. It was a lot of wok and there were many elements to coordinate. I guess I would call it a treatise on edge quantity :sunnysmil :exclamati As for quality, well, I'm never satisfied with my own work but I'm glad you see something worth looking at, Tom. It's so much easier for me to admire other people's work than my own.

Yes, I'll see you at the conference!

Congratulations on a very well balanced portrait !
Not beeing satisfied is a good way to go further, to never loose the desire to try new possibilities, and to do a better job day after day...
For this one, your job is finished, it's our job now to admire it as it is !

Thanks, Marina, I'm glad you appreciate the balance.
I agree, this is so important. There's always some new idea ready to be born. Hmm. . . that reminds me of your baby paintings. Interesting!

Alex, I admire the way you did this very much.The complex composition , and the welcoming look of the man and the colour of his suit ...everything so well done. Many congratulations.

Grethe, thank you so much. I admit it was an ambitious composition. I could picture it in my mind from the start, and the perspective was not too challenging, but I think the most challenging part was pulling it all together, thinking about degrees of detail of the different parts in relation to one another, and how each decision I made affected the way the attention was focused (or not) on the subject. And I don't want to downplay the help I received from members of this Forum in the WIP section.

Congratulations Alex,
I agree with everyone else that this portrait shows your mastery of juggling the many elements of a complex motif into a balanced composition.
The model looks very much alive because of the subtle temperature shifts in the complexion. I was surprised by the yellow- greenish shadow in his face, but it works very well.

Thanks, Allan, I appreciate what you say. It was quite an experience painting the face because, for some reason, the color in the life study differed radically from the color in the digital photos. Usually I find that the digital photos record the color, but do not (at least in the prints) show brilliance of illumination or color accents. That I have to supply myself, and if I have done a color study from life I have a record of how the light and color appeared to me. but in this case the color was actually different. The cool greenish light on the shadow side of his face was coming from a skylight in the center of the building. It was quite strong in reality, but it hardly appeared at all in the photos. I first painted it in as it was in the life study, but Dr. Papadakis felt it was too strong, so I toned it down, striking a compromise between the life study and the photos.