[John Reidy]

Dear Dianne,

I don't see any major problems with these and I compliment and encourage you to endeavor to keep painting from life. Two hours isn't much time and I think you have a great start.

What you may not realize is that over a period of time your experience in life painting will substantially strengthen your foundation for portraiture. You will grow to understand almost subconciously how the head surface moves and reacts to light. It will become second nature.

You will also be able to understand what happens in real life as opposed to a photograph. I have seen too many portraits that are merely copies of photographs. The light values and dark values are clumped together with no thought to what values hold true in real life.

I derive great satisfaction from your paintings.