Almost There

 Today I did a portrait painting as a recuerdo of my May birthday this Monday. I am thankful that my household fairly & my artistic family have survived 2 years of pandemic, surviving various health challenges along the way! I reviewed videos & literature about portraiture in

the internet but different artists have different strokes so eventually I used parts of their recommendations & part of my gut feel! But the similarities of all started with a reasonable fundamental drawing. Thus I focused on the shadows of my broad nose, dissimilar eye shapes & wide smile. I used new gamboge as underpainting instead of the recommended yellow ochre. For my brown skin, I used burnt umber as recommended & the side shadows, cobalt turquoise. I felt I have an  "almost there" likeness so I stopped. Please feel free to suggest any artistic stuff to enhance this piece! Happy painting to all!