Portrait of Roy

This portrait of my friend Roy is nearing completion. It needs some work on the dark passages, particularly in the hair and areas of shadow on the left side of the head and neck.

Portraiture was traditionally thought to be the most difficult of the various genres of art, and for good reason, in my view. Portraits require the painter to not only achieve a reasonable likeness (although everyone misses nuances here and there), but also appropriate color, a good pose, and some kind of emotional content. John Sargent used to say that portraits are paintings of people with something wrong about the mouth. I think that's a fair assessment.