Portrait

I promised one of Ryan's cousins that I would do a portrait for her as a wedding gift. This portrait is kicking my butt, hahaha. The truth is that I've decided that from here on out in my art career, if I mess up past what is fixable I have to start over, I can't just call it good and move on to the next picture. I have never, EVER started over on a painting after the second try failed, so the positive side of things is that going on the 6th draft of a painting is really pushing me to keep working at things and not give up. The ADD side of my personality is going crazy, hahaha.

Here are 4 of the 5 drafts I've already done. The first 3 I tried doing a landscape along with the portrait, but Ryan accurately pointed out that they were more of a landscape than a portrait, and since I am wanting to improve on portraits it would be best to make the couple the entire focus of the painting.
I can say that I have learned a lot in the process, even if it is so incredibly frustrating. I am a perfectionist in that I see miniscule details that bug me and bug me until I destroy it trying to fix it (which is what happened in the last draft I did), give up completely, or start over... so others might say, hey that looks fine but inside I hate it because I see the mistakes. I really want to finish a painting and be 100% pleased with it, and know that it is of professional quality.

So here we go on number 6, and I really hope this is the last time of starting over.