I've been working on this portrait of my friend Ariyele for quite some time. I intitally started it back in May 2009. I worked from life, I think we had two sittings of about an hour or two each, and was very pleased with how the portrait was progressing. After the second sitting, I continued to work on it from a photograph. The portrait became very severe - as you can see below in the image on the far right - and I put it away in mild disgust for over a year.
Earlier this month I took the painting out of storage, sanded it down a bit, and began working back into it. Using thick layers of opaque painting mixed with subtle glazes of color I was able to soften the hard edges and bring life back into the painting despite the fact that I was still only working from a photograph.
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