Two portraits painted with directions

Again, this assignment was about painting in Expressionist style, two portraits. I believe that I failed that particular part of it. It simply does not come naturally to me. Part of the assignment was also to paint on 50x60 cm pieces, for which I purchased one canvas board and one canvas on frame.
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.

An attempt at Expressionism

I have, when let loose, a tendency to draw and paint with lots of tiny details and small areas of paint. This course has been a real good thing for me as it forces me to paint differently. During five weeks (or somesuch) our assignment is to write about and paint in the Expressionist style. This is rather tricky - it's a very much-encompassing title, but in short it is about expressing feelings. Subjective feelings rather than objectively painting reality, and moving away from exact, naturalistic portrayal of things in favour of emotions and the artist's own expression.
Part of this particular assignment was to paint on a 50x60 (or F12) size canvas. When I saw in reality the size of it, I realised, wide-eyed, that this would really be something else for me. It was, I must admit, a complete and utter joy to paint! I chose, after a long thought, a photograph taken on my journey around Scotland last autumn, north of Oban, by Dunstaffnage Castle, looking out across to Isle of Mull, I think. There was something about how I felt when the photo was taken, and how I feel looking at it, that I tried to get across. I also bought a very large paintbrush - possibly size 24 or somesuch - to help with the really large areas. I looked long and hard at a few Expressionist paintings, such as those of Gabriele Münter, and then set to work.
I used acrylics, and it took at least four hours. I didn't time it. The first picture is the finished painting, the second is what it looked like after I painted the outlines with black paint, and then started colouring some of the larger areas. I tend to go for large areas first, something I picked up while painting miniatures. This time, I really wish I could show the painting to you in real life, because the photo doesn't do it justice - size wise, colour wise and so on.
In conclusion, I am very, very proud of my achievement this time. If it pleases you, feel welcome to comment, and also about the feeling it evokes inside you, if you wish!