The thing about portraits is, well, I've never spent much time doing them. And when I do, it's an addictive and frustrating experience. I have spent enough time on portraits that they certainly look like human beings, however, the trick about portraits is to make them actually look like a specific person. Yes, oh yes - that is the challenge! And I welcome it!
I started recently by trying to capture the innocent and natural looks of my children and friends' children. Watercolor seems to be my best medium for portrait work, but it too is often frustrating if you don't get the shape of the face right from the start - it's awful hard to change. For instance, I recently began a portrait of a little boy - but I made his face too long and then all of his features were just - off. And so it is that I end up painting 3 or 4 pretty looking portraits that just don't look quite like the person I really want to portray. I got lucky in painting my oldest daughter and was able to really capture her look on the first try. But for my toddler and infant, several attempts were made before I got it right. Some of those attempts were close and some were just plain awful. I managed to make my beautiful 2 year old look like a monkey in one instance and a horror film alien child in another. But eventually - after about 4 attempts, I got her. And the feeling was bliss.
There is a great level of patience required in portrait work. With landscapes and abstracts, I feel that my artistic license is much greater. I don't like that tree? It's gone. I want a rainbow swirl - there it is. But a portrait really does require a good resemblance of a real person - otherwise, it is just an abstract or an impression. Both forms of art are beautiful but what I've really been attempting these days are true portraits - getting to know the specific facial features of an individual. I'm curious to see how spending time on these fine details - the shadows of the nose, the light in the eyes, the wisps of hair, the pout in the lips - may change the way I encounter a landscape painting. For now, it has been an excellent challenge and one that I plan to continue.