The first photo here is of the painting that I made second. It is painted on canvas and I started out with a photo (of myself, taken on top of Dunadd Hill Fort) as reference, to get the general outlines of the face. I chose this particular one because the face is very tricky to get right in that angle. A mixture of black, blue, brown and some green and white was used for the outlines, and then there was a lot of blending and painting with larger, flat brushes, going on. I had immense help from the fact that my white is fairly opaque and could be used to "erase" areas where I made mistakes. There's a bit of a risk for that mouth to look like it is sneering, but again I take comfort in art being not finished merely because the artist puts the brush down - the viewer has part in it as well. I did not mean it to be sneering, I meant it to be sad, but there you go.
The second photo is the painting I painted first, and on a canvas board. Again, a photo (where Jonas is actually wearing a similar shirt) was used for reference, and I focused on the eyes, mostly. I am not very happy with either of these paintings, but they were good exercise. The shirt I am satisfied with, however; it looks good without being overworked. I started out in the same way as with the second painting, but had to make a lot more corrections. I could not get the measurements right, and it does seem to me now that I have a problem with drawing portraits and that it lies in the forehead-eye-nose-mouth and getting the same scale for all of them. This painting took two days to finish, but in hours as well, it was my so far most time-consuming piece.
I guess I am not happy because they do not look exactly like their subjects. Close enough but not exactly. Which is why I ought to redo this assignment, so that I push my own boundaries and learn something new.
All in all, I would not call either of them "Expressionistic", but they do express something at least.
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