A Study of Emily

I've been working on painting more portraits lately (do you remember those paintings I did of kids from my church last year). Painting people is HARD WORK. I'm so embarrassed to even post pictures of this painting in progress because it doesn't look good at all. But Emily asked me to, so I will. She is willing to sit staring at the wall for me, so I figured the least I can do is share my mediocrity with the world. ;)

I think that I have a great deal to learn about painting portraits. I was looking at some Rembrandt works last night and was amazed with the quality and life he put into his male portraits. What's interesting about Rembrandt, however, is that the paintings of men are vibrant and masterful while his female portraits are hideously ugly. I guess the guy didn't like painting women or something. He just never showed as much concern with that kind of work.

UPDATE: I finally had a free half hour to put some more work into this. Hopefully, I'll finish it soon.