Part Three ‘Looking at faces’ Review of portraits completed during this part of the course

I have completed four portraits for this part of the course, all of which I have shown below, in exercise order. On reflection I feel that I have explored some different ways of looking at portraiture but also have not strayed to far. The most expressive work is the third portrait. In terms of painting style it is the most relaxed and personally I feel it benefits from this approach. For the first two exercises I was mainly concerned with creating a likeness and this forced me to focus on this at the expense of expression. However when I compare these paintings with previous portraits that I completed during Drawing 1 and before embarking on the course I can see definite improvement. This is encouraging and I feel that there is plenty of room for me to further improve. I look forward to doing so and hope that the work in the next part of the course and Assignment Three I can prove this to myself.