Oil from black and white
 

I decided to vignette this. Your comments are valued. Just practice.

Close up
 

. . .

reference
 

...

Lon,

I am always amazed with your zest for painting! Wonderful! Particularly enjoy the confident sketchiness of this piece. Keep those fingers a walking, you are definitely on your way!...L

:) Thank you! I enjoyed this one. He is my grandfather.

Hi Lon,

I like the painting, do you look like your grandfather? Just wondering. When one paints a face of an ancestor maybe one recognizes something.

Greetings,
Peter

He is better looking than I! There are certain similarities.

It was a bit hard painting him, which shows up in the somewhat overworked face. I struggled catching the tone of the expression - the slight smile, but slightly sad eyes. He was not a smiling man, though not altogether unhappy.

It is hard painting people I know, as there is too much information in my subconscious, conflicting with what I see.

I wish the face were as sketchy as the background, but, alas, I secumbed to dabbling it to death. But you have to quit somewhere. It is somewhat like my drawing style, loose around the edges.

Hey Lon, I like your painting very much. I'm not big on altering what people do but I wonder what you would think of the painting if it were simplified and cropped like this?

YES!

Maybe I could resize the canvas. Ha ha! Good lesson.