A Shifty Business

Repositioning the mouth and nose made all the difference. I felt comfortable going in to work more on the skin tones and bring out highlights on the entire face. This is the burden, if you will,

of portrait painting, constant shuffling, shifting, and reworking. Patience pays off. Acceptance that it probably isn't going to be right the first two, five, or ten times of making changes...but that with each change it will be closer. Only very occasionally have I found that all this change making made a portrait worse and that usually indicates a fundamental problem that goes back to the initial concept...the pose, lighting, or composition. I am not entirely finished with the face but for now I will move on to another area so that what I have done has time to stew in my brain. I may yet discover another shifting that has to be made. Note that the way I work on a portrait is not necessarily the way anyone else should. I have developed my process over time to suit my temperament. I know some portrait artists who paint very directly and are able to make the changes very quickly, or may have to make hardly any changes at all. We aren't all shifty:-)