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Description
This is a step-by-step of my John Thornton oil painting (finished piece is here: ). It is painted on RayMar canvas panel, freehand, 6x8 inches. (John Thornton is the leading man in the BBC miniseries "North & South" and is portrayed by "Hobbit" star Richard Armitage.)

As you can see from the progress on this painting, the first version looked pretty bad and not at all like John Thornton. It takes a while sometimes to whip the likeness into shape.

To be honest, I was on the verge of scraping the paint off and recycling the painting panel and painting over John Thornton. I thought that it was a lost cause. But someone else saw the painting and said it looked like it could be saved, and after some time away from it, I could see that too. So I finished it!

The point of me saying all of this is to remind those of you who are learning portraits to NOT GIVE UP TOO QUICKLY on a portrait. Set it aside for a while. Double-check it against the reference. Flop it in Photoshop or look at a mirror image of it (I just look at my paintings in the mirror). All these tricks will help you see your portrait with fresh eyes and possibly find out what is wrong or missing, so you can fix it.

Description
This is a step-by-step of my John Thornton oil painting (finished piece is here: ). It is painted on RayMar canvas panel, freehand, 6x8 inches. (John Thornton is the leading man in the BBC miniseries "North & South" and is portrayed by "Hobbit" star Richard Armitage.)

As you can see from the progress on this painting, the first version looked pretty bad and not at all like John Thornton. It takes a while sometimes to whip the likeness into shape.

To be honest, I was on the verge of scraping the paint off and recycling the painting panel and painting over John Thornton. I thought that it was a lost cause. But someone else saw the painting and said it looked like it could be saved, and after some time away from it, I could see that too. So I finished it!

The point of me saying all of this is to remind those of you who are learning portraits to NOT GIVE UP TOO QUICKLY on a portrait. Set it aside for a while. Double-check it against the reference. Flop it in Photoshop or look at a mirror image of it (I just look at my paintings in the mirror). All these tricks will help you see your portrait with fresh eyes and possibly find out what is wrong or missing, so you can fix it.