portrait study

There is a portrait drawing/painting group on Fridays. We just share the model costs and paint away.
I love it. However, I've been unable to attend because of still not having a car. So, yesterday,
I worked up this little sketch from a photo of my friend Roy.  He and his wife Nancy run the art supply and frame shop in our home town back in the New Hampshire.  They are always doing above and beyond for everyone that comes in the shop. Both in their 70's, you would not know it by the amount of energy they project.
Nancy had sent me this photo of Roy because he had fallen down his cellar steps and gotten a nasty black eye.
So when I decided to try to paint from this photo, it was a challenge to work around a bruise that covered about
half of Roy's face.
Portrait work is still very much a learning process for me. But I enjoy it immensely.   One of the things that I am slowly figuring out is to keep all the edges soft - no hard lines, at least in the early stages. Especially in the mouth area, I think this is important to keep it from becoming harsh.  I still struggle with skin tones and just about every other part of portrait painting, but there is something about trying to capture the essence of someone that is so intriguing and wonderful that I just have to keep trying.It's always a humbling experience for me to post these studies.  But I'm not proud, we all have to start somewhere.  Maybe one of these days, I'll get good at it.