This is a portrait. I had a couple of people right up tell me how right on my likeness is, which is why I am posting, but there is a double direction going here.
I have been doing heads for a while, and am really happy with my likenesses but would like to make my general portraits more saleable to strangers, too. I seem to have a real aversion to backgrounds so I am emphasizing the figurative quality of of the pose. I used to fill the page with the face, had no problem doing 20" x 16" HEADS only. It is just not working and I don't know why. So now I am spending more time in studio on pose.
This is from our usual Saturday afternoon 3-hour open studio, but I had to leave for a good 1/2 hour to run and pick up a year old, undelivered commission
so the total time is about 2.5 hours.
This is on sueded moss green mat board with Terry Ludwig pastels. 20" x 16".
I am trying to do the juggle between figurative and purely descriptive. I am having a hard time finding a style.